I’m having multiple issues with my VFD (Shapeoko 3 XXL, v2.4 board). I feel like tech support hasn’t been very responsive, but to be fair, it’s the holidays so I’m sure they are doing their best. The most pressing issue is I just recently got a new VFD Spindle. It worked for a few weeks and now I am having a very strange issue.
I tried to upload a video, but the site won’t allow it. Essentially, the spindle is not turning on. When running gcode, the RPM readout on the unit starts at about 11 (not 11,000… ELEVEN), then quickly goes up to about 15, then back down to 11, and keeps going back and forth between the two rapidly, and does so indefinitely. Meanwhile, the spindle is not turning.
Let me try to answer some questions that people will ask:
-When I manually type in M3S16000, the spindle starts spinning and does so correctly.
-Machine is correctly executing the coordinates, just not controlling the spindle.
-All the connections are secure
-The red light is bright and constant
-Oh… it worked correctly 3 weeks ago with no problem.
-I tried turning the VFD on this morning and the display didn’t light up. I had to wiggle the power cord and the power unit in the machine does not seem secure… after wiggling, the display came alive, but still behaved the same as described above.
They have told me this is a post-processor issue, but I’ve never had an issue with my post processor before. I use VCarve pro for my CAD and it has always spit out the gcode just fine. This seems more like a hardware issue, but I’m no expert.
Here’s the beginning bit of the code, I don’t think there is anything weird here:
T1
G17
G20
G90
G0Z0.2500
G0X0.0000Y0.0000
S16000M3
G0X1.1183Y0.9944Z0.2000
G1Z-0.0500F20.0
G1X1.0546Y1.0646F55.0
G1X0.9894Y1.1334
G1X0.9228Y1.2008
I am confused how your gcode would have worked previously as there is no dwell between starting the spindle and starting the cut other than the time it takes the machine to rapid ~1mm. Can you post the beginning of some Gcode that has run successfully?
You can try adding “G4 P6” after the “S16000M3” command.
Brian’s Gcode looks exactly like mine and my spindle works fine. I think he has a hardware problem. Wiggling the power cord to get it to light up is worrisome.
(VECTRIC POST REVISION)
(2410E23C85915A17A0D6BB4BFA509A68)
T1
G17
G21
G90
G0Z46.736
G0X0.000Y0.000
S18000M3
G0X210.062Y396.094Z46.482
G0Z42.672
While I would normally agree with you, he also states that sending M3 S16000 works fine so this tells me it is not a hardware issue and is most likely a software issue.
Your code rapids 396mm in the y axis before cutting and after turning on the spindle so it is possible your spindle reaches speed before the cut starts. Or the very least gains enough speed to have enough torque to reach full speed while still in the cut.
He can also check if $32 is set to 1 which is laser mode. It should be set to 0.
Well the Gcode sample I submitted is only one example of many that work just fine.
What actually happens is that when you select ‘start’, the cutter moves from it’s current position to X0 Y0. At this point, the spindle starts to spin up. The machine holds its position for 4 to 5 seconds before starting a horizontal move to the start of cut position. By this time the spindle is up to speed.
I agree that there does not seem to be anything in the Gcode to command this behaviour and frankly, I don’t understand why behaves the way it does. My point was that in my experience with the same hardware, it isn’t the Gcode that Vcarve is creating for him that is causing Brian’s problem.
What software do you use to communicate with the CNC controller? The dwell might be built in to what you are using. For instance I know gSender does not include a dwell on M3 commands where UGS does. I am not sure if carbide motion includes a dwell or not. Sounds like it does if that is what you are using.
Yes I’m using Carbide Motion and I think that’s the likely explanation. There’s obviously a delay built into process somewhere. I’ve often wondered about it but have never really done any investigation.
It’s never been a problem. The spindle spun up to speed before starting carving. I didn’t know about dwell times until this past weekend when I looked it up. I manually put in a 10 second delay because I wanted to give it more time and see what it did, and it didn’t make a difference.
Ok smart people, maybe you can help me figure out what just happened.
I just talked to support and they had me download version 582 of Carbide Motion. The version I was using with the problems was 612 I think. My numbers might be a little off, but I definitely “downgraded” to a previous version. I changed nothing else. Same post processor from VCarve Pro… same everything. Spindle started spinning.
I asked support what the difference would have been and I just kind of got a shoulder shrug. I can understand that, who really know what 1’s and 0’s are changed between versions… but SOMETHING changed.
Any thoughts on any of that? I’m going to give it a spin this weekend and see if there are any bugs, but right now it looks like it’s working.