My Cheapo Chineese 3020t mini CNC Build (more like improvements) leanring all the way

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

Thanks mate, why are they bad? in the link you sent me it stated when the older balls at the top of the connection and doesnt make contact with the metal ring on the board it is bad, but the ones I have done which are balls but they are making perfect contact with the board rings? I will revist this though just want it clarifying so I fully understand mate

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If I may just put a comment in here about your soldered joints. I speak from the position of running an electronics manufacturing company for 30 years.

The pads on the PCB are not ideal. Large tph (I assume through plated) holes and very small pad areas. Be careful not to overheat and pull a pad clean off the circuit board. Can be repaired but messy.

Make sure you get heat both into the component and the pad simultaneously. It would help to use a flux pen on those pads first. Here we use temperature controlled and adjustable soldering iron. Not cheap if you go for a Weller solder station, but some of the Chinese offerings are quite good.

Try to remember, you are not just 'sticking' the solder to the components or pads. You are trying to achieve a metal to metal bond. Sort of low temperature welding if you like. Cleanliness and enough heat are the key requirements, with flux and a lead based solder. Naughty, but nice.

Cheers Kieth,

which pads are you referring too

Right chaps I need some help. I have Wired the spindle control board up to my planet cnc enclosure box as instructed by Planet themselves. However I am having difficulty in getting advice on how to get power to the spindle power pack.

Here is what I have done so far:

I have removed the potentiometer, capped off one wire and wired the 0-5v and gnd to the pin6 and gnd on the planet board. I have soldered the wires and heat shrunk them
Attachment 22975Attachment 22976Attachment 22977Attachment 22978Attachment 22979Attachment 22980Attachment 22981Attachment 22982

I just dont know how to supply power from the enclosure box to the large silver power pack which is mounted on top for the spindle.

It has these connections on it:
Attachment 22983

Hi there, could you explain a bit more what you mean when you say power pack on top for the spindle?

The photo you have there is a typical Chinese power supply, it will need to be wired to 230v AC - Mains.

Alex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

I just dont know how to supply power from the enclosure box to the large silver power pack which is mounted on top for the spindle.

It has these connections on it:
Attachment 22983

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I don't understand the question. You connect the mains to the L and N, the Earth to the one beside N and the spindle to the + (normally red wire) and the - (normally black or blue wire). If you have a regulator to adjust RPM then you connect that in between the power supply + and - and the motor + and - terminals. The PWM module should have some kind of documentation describing this, or printed on the PC board there should be clear markings.

hi mate, basically I have wired the small pcb that came with the spindle to the controller from planet cnc. However I dont know how to supply power to the silver power pack which is for the spindle. Been trying to get documentation for the spindle stuff but the ebay seller is not playing ball at the mo

hello alex,
sorry didnt see your reply, yes thats the box im trying to supply power to, but not sure how to tap of the power going to the controller box

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

hello alex,
sorry didnt see your reply, yes thats the box im trying to supply power to, but not sure how to tap of the power going to the controller box

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Hi Ravi,

You need to connect that Power Supply you have to 230v AC - Mains Voltage.

Looking at the PSU you have the far right three terminals: Earth, Live, Neutral.

Get a common Kettle Plug (For a PC or a PC Monitor etc), cut end off and use it to power the PSU.

USUALLY - in a typical plug it is as follows:

Blue - Neutral
Brown - Live
Green / Yellow - Earth

If you want to be neat about it then you can get one of these: Click Me

That will you mean you can just plug it in and have it modular.

Once you have the PSU live, you just need to (I assume - I do not know what you have been supplied to control the spindle), power the PCB using 48v DC from the PSU using any of the remaining terminals. You have 3 sets of -V & +V on the left hand side of the PSU.

Alex

I'm really tired today just travelled 1500 miles but looking at it Earth, live & neutral to the mains and you have 3 positive rails and 3 negative rails for the DC out.

e2a alex beat me to it with a better explanation lol do what he said.

Thank you very much lads for the help, so on the back of the bottom enclosure box I have 3 pins which a kettle like cable plug into:
Attachment 22985

This currently is plugged into the power supply box for my controller, can I just taop into these 3 pins and then wire some more wires to the spindle controller l, n and gnd?

I imagine that would be fine, can't see it drawing more Amps than that plug is designed for.

Alex

Can't see the amp rating for the IEC socket but looks like it should be fine anything over 10amp is in the zone. If it wasn't for some reason you can buy a new higher rated socket very easily on ebay for <£3 but the size of those pins I'm sure that's 10amp minimum.

A good place to skank these sockets is old PC power supplies for pikeys like me ;)

Again thank you very much lads, will probably have a go at finishing this wiring tomorrow night and report back :-)

one last question,

what wires go where from the power supply box to the spindle pcb?

Attachment 22987Attachment 22988

What are the two terminals on the left? Power in? If so they will go there from the PSU.

Alex

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

one last question,

what wires go where from the power supply box to the spindle pcb?

Attachment 22987Attachment 22988

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Did you read my post? Or was it not clear?

Will read again mate, took some more pics as well. 1 min

Ah yes that makes sense except im not sure what wires go from the power pack to the spindle pcb. One main question though, at the moment, the power comes into the planet enclosure from the way via a kettle/pc like plug. It then goes to a switch on the front of the enclosure. It is then wired from the switch to the l, n and gnd of the enclosure power pack. If I link the L, N and gnd from here to the spindle power pack above would these cables handle it do you think or do I need to rewire in a thicker wire?

I have also wired the cable which goes to the spindle itself wrong, I have now connected this to the terminals which are labelled motor - & +.



Here is a few pics:
Attachment 22994Attachment 22995Attachment 22996Attachment 22997Attachment 22998Attachment 22999Attachment 23000Attachment 23001Attachment 23002Attachment 23003Attachment 23004Attachment 23005Attachment 23006Attachment 23007Attachment 23008

They say motor - &+ so I think I wired these up wrong, think these are supposed to go to the actual spindle?

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

They say motor - &+ so I think I wired these up wrong, think these are supposed to go to the actual spindle?

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Yes those are supposed to go the spindle, no biggy just swap them to the correct terminals on the PCB.

Do you know what the draw is of the spindle? I would advise against running that new PSU for the spindle through that On / Off switch, i would just power the Spindle PSU direct from the IEC / Kettle Plug, if you want to be able to turn it on & off away from using the wall plug, then get one of those additional IEC / Kettle Plug mounts from ebay like i linked.

You need to wire that PCB to the Spindle PSU, just take 'Power -' on the PCB to a 'V-' terminal on the PSU and the same for 'Power +' to 'V+'.

That should be all you need to do in terms of power.

Cheers

Alex

Hello Alex mate,

here is some info for the spindle:
Brushless Spindle DC Motor:

Working Voltage: 48V DC
Rotation Speed: 12000r/min max
Power: 400W
Torque: 230mN.m
Insulation Resistance: >2Megohm
Dielectric Strength: 400V
Diameter: 52mm
Axis Collet Length: 48mm
Diameter of Axis Collect Holder: 16mm
ER11 Collect: 3.175mm

Power supply (enough power for motor):

Input: AC220V ±10%, 50Hz
Output: DC48V, 10A
Power: 480W

Attachment 23010

Am i on the right track at last?

Yeah based on the info you gave there i probably would not wire that PSU through those small wires & switch.

Yeah your drawing looks good that is how it should be wired.

Cheers

Alex

Thanks very much mate, I bet everyone is banging there heads against their screens with my lack of knowledge lol

Not at all mate, the thing is with electronics, is if you just guess and turn it all on you quickly realise that all you have to show for your work is a bit of smoke and a new shopping list of parts haha

Alex

I totally agree, once i have done this wiring do you think im better leaving the spindle unplugged at the motor just while I make sure the software is communicating etc?

right its been a long while since i last updated this, I sent the control box back to planet CNC as it was faulty, I received it back pretty quickly a good while ago but have yet to plug it all in.......until tonight. Well the results were a bit disappointing,and now the motors will only move one way. I have sent another email to planet but even though im about £600 down on this control box I think I may need to buy another one which is wider used. Can anyone offer any advice as to if I should persevere with this box of just cut my losses and move on?

There are LED's on the front of the cnc control box but I cannot find anywhere what they mean as one of them is flashing and another is flashing red which obviously means something :-(

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

right its been a long while since i last updated this, I sent the control box back to planet CNC as it was faulty, I received it back pretty quickly a good while ago but have yet to plug it all in.......until tonight. Well the results were a bit disappointing,and now the motors will only move one way. I have sent another email to planet but even though im about £600 down on this control box I think I may need to buy another one which is wider used. Can anyone offer any advice as to if I should persevere with this box of just cut my losses and move on?

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Too early to call. But I'm a big fan of fixing, rather than replacing random bits.

You say "the motors will only move one way" - you're referring to the axis stepper motors? (the last part of this thread was discussing the spindle motor, but from the tense of your comment here I think you're talking axis?.

On the assumption you're talking axis...

What's changed?, just the control box? (which eliminates, to some degree) software set-up in Mach3 (assuming this is what you're using). Assuming that it's just the control box then it's unusual to lose all three axis at once. That to me sounds more like a configuration issue than failure (though lets not rule that out!)

How are you testing each axis?, front-panel switches, or from G-Code loaded into Mach3? Have you tried both? If the front-panel - are you saying that, eg, "Left moves left, Right moves left"?, or "Left moves left, Right doesn't move"? - it helps to understand better the nature of the problem.

If following a failure-more: You're now playing a diagnostic game. At least with losing one direction off one or more axis you can do some sensible diagnostics pretty easily (the step/dir interface typical of these boards means that the direction line is somewhat low frequency and easily measurable/set-able). I'd be looking to scope the dir signal with the axis being driven alternate directions. If no scope, then DVM, if no DVM then LED & resistor, and so on. You'd be wanting to start at the control board, then move to the stepper drivers. Even a visual inspection might help, though I guess you've done this. The control box looks to be wired with IDC connectors - you might have to knock a diagnostic lead up that breaks-out the DIR line (or allows you to drive it 0/1 without shorting the control box).

For me - not enough info at this time, I appreciate you're probably frustrated - and that's the worst frame of mind to diagnose problems with - at least for me. Try breaking the problem down to succinct points and either understand each of them, or post them here to be critiqued.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

There are LED's on the front of the cnc control box but I cannot find anywhere what they mean as one of them is flashing and another is flashing red which obviously means something :-(

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From the manual:

2.2.11 Mk3/4 LED indicators
The user is provided with helpful feedback and live ‘status’ information via on-board LED indicators. There are four indicators.
POWER: Lights when the controller is powered.
DATA: Indicates controller functions.
LINK: Indicates controller communication.
STATUS: Blinks to indicate controller function is ‘good’.

Which are flashing?, it sounds like at least one should be.

well im afraid this is a bit of a humble response. The machine appears to be working fine lol. Im not sure why as im still learning the software but the axis on the screen where coloured red. The ones which were coloured red were the onces which would move correctly. I had a play with the limits (nto exactly sure what im doing) and they went back to normal and not red, this allowed normal travel while jogging.

I have also managed to set the limit switches up so now ever axis will stop just before its normal end of travel.

This is a massive milestone for me!!! Faith has been restored in the machine and control box.

Now all I need to do is learn how to set it up correctly which is way above my head. Been looking online and even the most basic of tutorials seem a bit advanced. Lots of special terminology to take in.

I think the first thing I need to get my head around is homing, which im still a bit in the dark with lol

Main thing is the machine is jogging correctly and when I type for example x10 the spindle moves exactly 10mm, ive tested all axis in all directions and confirmed all is good. Sounds daft but im soooo chuffed to even be able to do that

well I have a massive update (well for me anyway)

actually got the machine to home to 0,0,0 last night. Doesnt look like much but for me this is a massive deal and big step forward to getting closer to doing some actual machining.

Here is a small vid I sent to my mate, ignore the spazzy commentary lol

https://youtu.be/kuZlWHEAgIM

Well the place you have homed to is machine zero. You then jog to the corner of your part then touch off with x,y and Z this then becomes your work offset G54 where your part is actually located on the bed.

Keep at it Ravi. One small step and all that, for us novices anyway! :-)

Cheers lads,

yeah one step at a time andy mate

cheers clive, I will probably set the machine home to the highest z point and x,y to be the centre of the bed as the parts im going to be making will mostly be fixed down to the tooling plate around the edges, so makes sense to keep the spindle away from part? Or maybe at the rear of the bed in the middle

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

Cheers lads,

yeah one step at a time andy mate

cheers clive, I will probably set the machine home to the highest z point and x,y to be the centre of the bed as the parts im going to be making will mostly be fixed down to the tooling plate around the edges, so makes sense to keep the spindle away from part? Or maybe at the rear of the bed in the middle

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I think you are misunderstanding the difference between machine zero and work zero. You are correct to have the Z home to the top then all z gcode will be negative. its nice to home the machine so that X & Y movements to the work position are +ve.

The work zero G54 is generally where you set it in CAD. So after you have homed you then move the machine to the Zero in CAD then touch off at that point. Work zero G54 can be anywhere on the table and in a different place every time if you want. The Home position is always in the same place.

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Originally Posted by Clive S

I think you are misunderstanding the difference between machine zero and work zero. You are correct to have the Z home to the top ten all z gcode will be negative. its nice to home the machine so that X & Y movements to the work position are +ve.

The work zero G54 is generally where you set it in CAD. So after you have homed you then move the machine to the Zero in CAD then touch off at that point. Work zero G54 can be anywhere on the table and in a different place every time if you want. The Home position is always in the same place.

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Yeah I may be getting confused, I understand that I need to tell the machine a reference datum ie zero for a part once it is jugged into place, but at the end of the program the machine to stop in a position away from where I am undoing the fixings etc if that makes sense.

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Originally Posted by ravihotwok

Yeah I may be getting confused, I understand that I need to tell the machine a reference datum ie zero for a part once it is jugged into place, but at the end of the program the machine to stop in a position away from where I am undoing the fixings etc if that makes sense.

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You can just jog away after the machine has stopped. Or add the park position with a bit of gcode at the end of your file. Or set it up in the CAM post.

Out of all that I understood:

just jog away after the machine has stopped

ha ha, still got a lot to learn mate so bare with me pal

Right chaps, now I have set the limit switches and got the thing to home.

Whats the next thing to set up??

well had a good play with the software until the early hours of this morning, and then this happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1WulFwlRxE&feature=youtu.be