Build Thread Mach3 to Acorn

[Leo Voisine]

At this point I am also a little concerned about some of the issues you are mentioning. I am OK with doing some rewiring. This machine was sloppy right from day one, but it worked so I didn't mess with it. I bought it new in 2015 and used it a lot since. I don't care for the Chinese workmanship, hence is part of the reason for the upgrade.

I have done a lot of work with this machine and with a few inconvient exceptions it has worked fine.

OK, I am sure this will raise a few eyebrows, but there is no green ground wire connected to this machine, just the 2 hots (blue and black). I can connect the ground easily enough.

As I am upgrading, I want to correct the sloppy work and make it correct.

Tomorrow I will dig in a bit more and get more pictures.

One thing to note - on the small red wire going to the on/off switch I could measure voltage. Small - less then one volt, but varying up and down a little.

OK, this is sounding like a can of worms.

Tomorrow is another day.

[Leo Voisine]

What is spindle fault 9030

[suntravel]

What is spindle fault 9030

ALM from VFD.

If there is no ALM on the VFD display change the Input Spindle OK from green to red.

Uwe

[Leo Voisine]

OK, I can MDI to turn on and off the spindle. Getting closer

Problem now is I cannot control spindle RPM

[ShawnM]

OK, I am sure this will raise a few eyebrows, but there is no green ground wire connected to this machine, just the 2 hots (blue and black). I can connect the ground easily enough.

It's a Chinese machine, that's very common with those as they ground nothing. You'll want to add a single ground bus bar somewhere inside the cabinet and ground EVERYTHING to it. If you don't you'll be chasing your tail wondering why you have noise issues by the way of communication errors in your error log. Do yourself a favor and start grounding things as you work on them.

[Leo Voisine]

It already has a bus bar with most of the inside devices tied to that. I just need to connect the green ground wire from the feed into that bus. When I wired it I used 3 wire - 2 hots plus ground. I just need to tie it in.

Now I just need to know how to get the variable RPM on the spindle to work.

[ShawnM]

Why have you not hooked up the ground? You really should tie in the ground immediately. There's a danger if nothing is grounded, to you and your expensive components. This should be the first wire you hook up.

You probably need to reprogram the parameters on the VFD. Was it controlled by the software before or manually on the VFD?

[RogDC]

It already has a bus bar with most of the inside devices tied to that. I just need to connect the green ground wire from the feed into that bus. When I wired it I used 3 wire - 2 hots plus ground. I just need to tie it in.

Now I just need to know how to get the variable RPM on the spindle to work.

I believe you mentioned previously that PWM was connected to the VFD from the previous controller.

The Acorn will provide a voltage from 0-10 VDC output for speed control which is different than a PWM signal.

You can hook up a multi -meter across the Acorn terminals ( not connected to the VFD ) and make sure it varies with the speed adjustment in CNC12. Marty's bench test video shows how to do this.

The 0-10VDC input to the VFD may be different that the PWM input pins on the VFD. I believe this was covered previously by @Centroid467 . VFD Parameter changes may be required as well for the new input.

[Leo Voisine]

I did the bench test on the 0-10v and that worked fine. I have not had time to go check the VFD parameters, partly because I don't know how - yet. Life does go on. I will figure out how to look at parameters on the VFD, then go thru Centroid467s checklist. I think that is where the answer will be. Seems S1 allows it to spin, but the parameters elsewhere are set to PWM. After church today, I may be able to get back into it.

as to the ground
The machine was wired with 2 hots and no ground as it arrived from China. For 9 years the machine ran great, with a few small exceptions. Mach3 and the XHC bob worked well. I made enough money with this machine to cover the total cost of the machine and tooling, the Centroid upgrade and many other things like my Subaru Forrester. The ground is an issue - yes - and it will get connected. I do thank everyone for the encouragement.

My choice to upgrade to Centroid has nothing to do with functionality. The machine is fine just as it was. I believe that Centroid will enhance an already solid stable machine in many ways.

This is a great forum, very helpful. I would not get through this without the support given here. I am certain I will have many more questions before I am finished. This is all really cool stuff amd I am learning a lot. Thank you all for generously helping me in this endevour.

[Leo Voisine]

SWEETNESS - I figured out how to access the VFD parameters. I read the manual. Not I have MDI speed control as well as CNC12 control. Estop also works.

Thank you all.

Now to move on to the next steps

I think axis motion will be next, as that will help me to setup the proximity switches.