Huanyang VFD control plugin for Mach3, USB RS-485

[JayPunchbuggy]

Hi,

I reciently picked up one of those Chinese 6040 routers you see on eBay. Worked right out of the box, very pleased! But didn't like the manual control of the spindle... Eventually, I found this gem:


mach3-plugin-for-huanyang-vfd/


I got a cheap RS-232 to RS-485 converter (about £3 from ebay) and wired it up with an old cut up usb cable (connected the shield only at the converter end. Installed the plugin and it worked! I can set the spindle speed in Mach3 and get a readout of what the actual speed is. The instructions on website are excelent, so I won't bother re-writing them here.


As I understand it, I can also add a custom readout to the Mach3 screen to show the current current being drawn by the spindle.

One gotch to look out for: Make sure the the Huanyang VFD's interface board board has the transevier populated. U4 I think. Mine did, so I was in luck and didn't have to solder one on.

Hope this helps someone out there.


Cheers,
-Jay

[Lee Roberts]

Thanks for posting this Jay, made it a sticky thread :).

Anyone looking for the USB RS485 485 converter / adapter here is a link to the best price i could find: USB-to-RS485-485-Converter-Adapter-ch340T-chip-Support-32-64-XP-Win7-Vista

I'v also attached the plugin along with the usb driver.

[martin54]

Did you have any problems setting this up at all Jay?? Just tried it myself as I wanted to have spindle speed controlled by mach3, downloaded everything OK installed OK set up the plug in OK & got the message that it had been successfully configured but when I start mach3 things seem to start ok, machine moves, spindle starts & everything looks great but then I get an estop & it all stops.
Thought it might be a problem with one part of the gcode but it does it in a different place everytime so no consistency other than it bringing up the estop.

[Swarfing]

Just to let you know i have one of these working on linux....still trying to get thinks working in linuxcnc though :-(

[drumsticksplinter]

This is brilliant guys, never even knew you could do that, I've ordered my usb to rs485 from the link Lee posted, now I play the waiting game...

[martin54]

I've obviously done something wrong, just can't seem to find out what lol.
Other thing is that having set it all up I have closed mach3 down & re opened it a few times & each time I get the same wizard screen up asking me if I want to configure the plugin. If I accept I get the screen up for setting the com port & other bits. When I click ok I get a massage saying can't read value but if I click ok again I get the successfully installed message.

[JayPunchbuggy]

Hmmm... I used an RS-232 to RS-485 converter, not a USB one. Wonder it this could make a difference? Will think about it.

Are you able to enter a target rate into Mach3 and then hit F5 and get the spindle to start and reach that rate?