Ready Steady Eddy

[Boyan Silyavski]

Kill all power, no doubt.

Here is how i have my CNC working:

-the PC id surge protected and connected to a 1500w UPS. Also the CNC is conected there
-the VFD enables the BOB
-the charge pump enables the BOB and the VFD

Typical everyday scenarios:

Power interruption from outside of the house. It happens a lot here in Spain. Or a fuse trip. I have a lot of stuff at that fuse :-)
-the VFD stops and stops Mach3. I go and see which line the process is. I write it down on a piece of paper. If power comes for the next half hour , i just continue from there. If not, i stop the PC and when i have power again, simp[ly continue from the line.

My mistake
-Spindle digs, VFD trips, Mach3 stops, Usually reset, lift the Spindle, check Z0, usually that is the mistake, Z0 and voilaaa

Mach3 goes down and decides some crazy movement. Happens rarely but happens.
-the bit digs, spindle stops and trip signal stops the process. if nothing is damaged, i check the xyz0 and if ok i continue from there, if not, i throw in the garbage and do it again

PC stops, restarts alone or whatever similar.
-VFD stops

I hit the EStop
-no power to the drives, no power to the BOB, VFD stops

I greatly recommend a pause button also on the machine. Sometimes when not sure what is happening if nothing crashes is better to just pause the process and contemplate. Though an extra second is lost meanwhile

[EddyCurrent]

I greatly recommend a pause button also on the machine. Sometimes when not sure what is happening if nothing crashes is better to just pause the process and contemplate. Though an extra second is lost meanwhile

What would you have it do ?

Stop the VFD
Send a FeedHold signal to Mach3 and let it control the stepper motors


Is it not just as easy to do it from the PC ?

[Boyan Silyavski]

What would you have it do ?

Stop the VFD
Send a FeedHold signal to Mach3 and let it control the stepper motors


Is it not just as easy to do it from the PC ?

Sometimes i am not sure what happens, so i just hit the pause / feedhold/ button, instead of the estop. Spindle still rotates and i check. if everything ok, i hit the "cycle start" button which is also at the machine, so everything continues, as if nothing have happened.
The keyboard is 2m away in my case, so its not easier.

I do this if i want to check if the material has loosened on the fixture, clean some bearings, remove sticks from the vacuum shoe and so, without further interrupting the process.

On next machine i will have flood and vacuum buttons also. Sometimes when i want to do something with the keyboard i accidentally touch the wrong buttons. last time somehow i zeroed the machine coordinates. So had to stop, go to home, zero again, get out of Mach3,save fixture, then again in, zero on the work piece and start again the job.