I was using starting frequency I think it was pd027.
I’ll have to look when I get home in 10 hours or so. Sorry it takes so long to get answers. Just the joys of work 4 days a week. Good news is I get 5
Days off this weekend to get this thing going
8k rpm starting speed doesn’t stop it. Same problem.
Yes. It was not when I received it but it is now.
So my shielded usb cable got delayed until tomorrow.
I noticed something tonight. Was warming the spindle up to finish a cut I stated 2 weeks ago lol ( brought my laptop home from Work as the wires isn’t allowed to get dusty.
Anyway when the spindle is turned on and I touch the touch probe the light goes green. When the spindle is turned off and I touch the touch probe this does not happen.
This thing is throwing so much emi out it’s making my body show a ground. This is with me touching nothing else while wearing Sandals on a concrete floor.
I’m starting to wonder if this vfd is defective.
Well the shielded cable didn’t help at all
I filed a. Exchange with amazon. I’m going to swap the vfd out and see if it fixes it. Then all that’s left is a new comouter
I am starting to wonder if these HY VFDs are actually designed as some sort of electronic warfare device for jamming enemy systems.
The other evening I noticed that CM had disconnected from the machine and thought “it must have timed out”, it hadn’t, I got a bunch more disconnects and then noticed that whilst messing things about on the Shapeoko bench I’d left about 2 feet of the USB cable hanging down the front of the bench close to the VFD. I put this back on top of the bench where it normally lives and no more disconnects.
That was an “Amazon basics” cheap USB which has been otherwise fine for me, but carefully routed alongside the machine frame and then to the laptop, well away from the VFD or it’s input / output cables.
Does your VFD output still have the temporary shielding you put on the cable?
Yes. It has the shielding. It also has ferrite cores all over it. The usb was shielded and ferrite cores on it. The power filter is installed.
At this point I’m down to a vfd issue or computer issue or this is just the way it’s going to be. I’m going to exchange the vfd for a new one and seee if it helps. If not I might try a new computer tower and see if that helps. Otherwise My only other idea is to build a emi cage around the vfd.
This is turning out to be a real, unwanted, adventure for you.
If I remember correctly both the laptops you tried have worked and its the desktop PC that doesn’t want to play ball?
Did the tower PC have this problem before the previous VFD died and tried to zap the Shapeoko controller? (I’m really hoping this was a completely separate issue and you don’t have some horrid electrical gremlin)
The problem only occurs when the VFD is running so the problem would seem to be one or a combination of;
- A lot of noise induced into the ground between the PC and the Shapeoko controller
- Noise picked up directly in the USB cable
- Noise pickup in the tower PC, either via the PSU cable or radiated EMI
I think you posted that one or more of the USB ports was dead on the tower PC?
It might be worth checking to see if you can see any AC voltage measurement (if you have a suitable meter) between the case on the tower PC and the ground on the Shapeoko (the mounting bolts for the controller on the Y rail are a good ground reference on mine).
Otherwise, it might be worth trying another desktop PC, if one USB port is dead then it’s possible the others are weak or flaky.
I’ll measure the ac voltage tonight.
Yes both the laptops I have work fine. I ran it for an hour and a half last night off a laptop without issue. Other than a lack of a dust boot.
But you are correct this is a rabbit hole I do not want to go Down but it wasn’t my choice.
There’s a refurbished computer that I have been looking at that’s only $139 so if the vfd doesn’t fix it the next step won’t be too expensive.
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I bought a Dell desktop small form factor computer with two wide screen monitors, keyboard and mouse for under $200.00. Although it is an older PC it came with a license for Windows 10 Pro. The thing has 6 USB ports. It is more than fast enough to run any cnc machine. With the two monitors I bought a stand to hold them so I can turn one monitor around towards the cnc machine and see what I am jogging to. The setup came with a keyboard and attached mouse so I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.
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Well I swapped vfd today. No change. Only thing left is the computer or I’m just screwed. I’ll give it a 50/50
Well it looks to be fixed. Or atleast in stationary testing. Bought an overkill tower for the shop it’s actually the most Powerful one I’ve ever bought. 3.4 ghz quad core I7. 16 gb ram and a solid state drive. No more generating tool paths and having to wait an hour.
I cannot test it with a cut yet as I broke my z limit switch. I’ve got 4 more coming (spares) Wednesday. I pulled the control board off to solder wires to the board for the pwm and gnd wires. So once I get the limit switch in I can run a 2 hour cut and see what happens.
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I didn’t read every bit of this thread above but I had the same problem and I plugged my machine into a different grounded receptacle than my router and this issue was resolved.
If any of the receptacles on the same circuit are “bucked” or grounded to neutral this could occur very easily. I would assume that you want to do the same thing for your spindle and machine.
FYI Mine still does it rarely but I always hold my router when i turn it off to ensure it doesn’t drop into the work while spinning.
Good luck!
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With the. Old computer it would do it when powered off a non grounded generator so I ruled out any computer power source issues.
Well still fighting this.
It is a lot better with the new computer. I can have no problems for an hour sometimes. Other times I can’t even turn the motor on. Getting frustrated.
Tonight I’m going to make some faraday cages and start isolating things to see what happens.
You’re having a bit of a horror story now.
Is the ground in your shop a good solid ground?
I’ve had disconnect problems when I let the USB near the HY VFD noise machine but not when I keep the VFD & motor wire away from the USB and computer.
I’m away from the machine until the 3rd. So I’m going to dig in a again once I get back. Have limited internet where I’m at now (on purpose).
As far as I know the ground is good. I’ll run through it and check it when I can. I had a shielded usb with built in noise suppressor delivered to the house right before I left. So I’m going to try that.
Horror story. Yes. I am not a patient man by any means. So this is testing me.
I’m tempted to move the vfd to the other side of the enclosure to see if that helps. But that would make running it to the machine difficult.
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Was a couple beers in last night thinking about this. Got back today. Is the actual control board grounded through the plug? USA version.