I’m on my second SO5 Pro controller and 3rd VFD Spindle Controller.
When I first fired up the machine this morning and started a carve, the VFD reported an RPM of 560 (toolpath was commanding 18000 RPMs) and the spindle wasn’t spinning. I tried a series of manual speed commands through the MDI and this was the result. Note that even though the RPM values changed on the VFD front panel, the spindle never spun up.
These values shown on the VFD front panel would vary slightly but again, the spindle never spun up. These were the symptoms of one of my previous failures.
I then power cycled the whole machine (SO5 and VFD). Now the VFD does not respond to any MDI commands and instead cycles through the values 8.0, 9.0, 10.0 as shown in the video at this link:
This cycling of values on the VFD is something I haven’t seen before and was wondering if anyone else who has had problems with their VFD had seen it. I haven’t started the machine up again since it did this cycling thing.
I have a Rev 2.0 SO controller and have no idea what version of the VFD Spindle Controller.
I’ve followed many of the other threads and am aware of C3Ds public recognition of issues with the SO5Pro but this is a new scenario for me. I’ve sent a message to C3D support but any info from forum members would be appreciated.
It is difficult to have confidence in this machine to support a business. This latest VFD/SO5 Controller combo has been running well for about 2 months but it just isn’t reliable and every time I start it up, I’m half-expecting there to be a problem.
Thanks for the information. No green LED lit in my controller. The board says it’s a v1.1.
Do you know if they’re just sending boards or the whole control box at this point? It would be nice not to have to rerun the cable back to the spindle for a fourth time. I keep breaking pieces of the cable track. I wish they’d change the design not to make the spindle cable permanently attached to the control box.
Some other users have stated that they are sending just the control board now.
You should also check to make sure that you are getting 24V from the SO5 controller between red and black still. Without it the green LED will not light up.
I’m am seeing 24 volts from the SO controller so hopefully the problem is isolated to the VFD control board. I also checked to see if the LED is dim as the other user suggested and it is. This is the same as my second failed VFD controller but on that one I didn’t see the cycling values on the front panel. Hopefully they can get a new board out soon and this will all go away for good this time.
My fvd was also dim on my pro xxl. (they asked me if light was dim so they must be aware) I am concerned when my vfd goes out of warranty. I also had similar cycling values I wish they would tell us what the problem is or was.
This is getting out of hand. Thank God I couldn’t afford the VFD when I bought my SP5 a month ago, I’m just suffering from every factory assembled bolt and screw coming loose and a C3D router and bits that have ridiculous runout. I don’t know how you guys haven’t absolutely lost it. First it was the Z axis assembly, today it was the screws holding the left Y axis ball screw carrier backing out and everything started making horrible sounds. Thought I had double checked every screw I wasn’t required to install based on what I’ve read before, but I guess not. Only my third carve and it was only MDF. Can I get a bottle of loctite please?
I’m concerned about the warranty as well. I received my machine at the end of April and for the first couple of months it was down more than it was up. Part of it is that they ship some replacement parts to me via FedEx Home which takes anywhere from 5 to 7 days to get from California to western NY. I’m hoping they’ll expedite the replacement board for the VFD so I can get up and running again soon. It would be nice if they offered warranty extensions to all of us that have been affected by these problems which they say was an issue with the quality control of one of their vendors.
I did have one mechanical issue where the large nut on the bearing block for the X-axis came loose. I could not for the life of me get it to thread back on and was afraid of cross-threading it. I contacted support and they sent me a whole new X-axis ball-screw assembly immediately. That came from Chicago so I got it pretty quick and only took about a half hour to replace. Like the other user, I had to tighten several screws in the pre-assembled parts when I received the machine and I check all of them periodically.
When the machine is working, it works great but I’m struggling with trying to believe it’s reliable enough to base a small woodworking business on.
I received a v1.2 “Spinderella” VFD board today to replace the broken v1.1 board. The C3D video that Winston made was very good by the way.
The red ring LED is now shining brightly, the green LED referenced earlier in this thread is now lit but the front panel of the VFD (where the speed is shown) is not working (i.e., completely dark). I’ve re-seated all the connectors several times but no luck. Also, there’s no voltage on the J5 connector which has a cable leading from the Spinderella board up into the top of the VFD control box. Not sure if there should be.
Has anyone else seen this when replacing the VFD Spinderella board?
Contacted support and they are sending me another whole new VFD control box and a complementary Carbide 3D router to have as a backup. I haven’t been able to get an ETA on the new VFD control box and C3Ds website says it’ll be “9 business days” lead time if I were to order a new one so that’s probably not a good sign that I’ll be getting a replacement anytime soon.
If the VFD is not powering on then it is probably not receiving power from J4(not sure if it’s still J4 on v1.2 board). I’m wondering if they forgot to put a fuse inside of the fuse box.
The fuse is in there and looks to be intact. That would have been a nice problem to fix and I could have been back up and running.
The board could have been damaged in shipping. It was in an oversized box and they did have a sheet of bubble wrap in there but it wasn’t wrapped around the board. Everything was just floating around loosely in the box.
Nope. Just floating around in the box with the small piece of bubble wrap and a return label for the defective board. Someone needs a lesson on packing electrical components for sure.
Perhaps foolishly, I’m still holding out hope that they can clean up this whole mess. When the machine is working, it really does work well.
My frustration now is that I can’t get a response on multiple requests for an ETA on when I can expect the complementary router and new VFD Controller they’re sending me. Since they’re showing a 9 business day lead time for new VFDs, I suspect the news on that front is bad.
It also would be nice if C3D publicly acknowledged the failures in the VFDs as they did with the blog post regarding soldering/missing component issues with the SO5 controller. Maybe they have and I just missed it.
Since I haven’t had a machine that works more than a few weeks at a time, it also would be nice if they reset the warranty clock when the VFD issues are finally resolved.
Perhaps someone from C3D (e.g. Rob) could comment on this and give those of us who’ve had these issues some reassurance that purchasing this machine to support a business was a sound idea.
I think the more likely scenario is if you continue to show displeasure with the situation and vent on here he will come in and completely close your thread like he did to mine and say it was going to close automatically in a day anyway, then they will within hours have his media team make another propagandistic Instagram video explaining how much they care about their customers and how they are all about transparency all while blaming the whole mess on an unknown third party whome they clearly trust with manufacturing AND “testing” and absolve themselves of any responsibility.
But like I said, hopefully you get this resolved some time before the warranty expires. My 5 works great at the moment too. I just know one day I’ll go to use it and it won’t. My controller board is rev 3 I think and I bypassed all the carbide stuff to get my spindle working perfect…
If anything purchased from Carbide 3D is not working as noted on the shop page, let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we will do our best to work with you to resolve the issue.
I’m not suggesting C3D is “running the clock out” on warranties. I’ve been in contact with support on all the issues I’ve had with my SO5Pro and VFD which include a couple of mechanical issues with the machine itself, I’m on my second SO5 controller and am now waiting on what will effectively be my 5th attempt at addressing the issues with my VFD (one spindle, two control boxes and the latest was a failed v1.1 to v1.2 AC/control board upgrade).
My question about the warranty is that I assumed I had started the 12 month clock with a working, reliable machine after purchase and that hasn’t been the case. C3D is well aware of the VFD issues as are many users on this forum. I’m only suggesting that C3D restart the 12 month warranty once they solve the problems with the VFDs.
I’ve been both factual and professional with my posts on this forum and expect the same from C3D.
