Help please. Dip switches and mach 3 settings

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi Clive,
Thank for your reply.
What do you mean by a star point?
So I should connect all the shieldings at one end for the spindle, the steppers and the limit switches, to a common point in the case. The frame has a common ground/earth with the spindle, which goes into the vfd and from there into one iron rod in the ground. Everything else, has the ground wires sent into the main electrical grid.

After all the shields are connected to this star point, where should this star point be wired to?

Regards,
Andrei

[Clive S]

Hi Clive,
What do you mean by a star point?
So I should connect all the shieldings at one end for the spindle, the steppers and the limit switches, to a common point in the case. The frame has a common ground/earth with the spindle, which goes into the vfd and from there into one iron rod in the ground. Everything else, has the ground wires sent into the main electrical grid.

After all the shields are connected to this star point, where should this star point be wired to?

Regards,
Andrei

OK I am not familiar with how you receive you incoming mains in your country In the UK the electric company supplies a ground point (that in general is also connected to our neutral) But in Spain in the country areas the supply does not include a ground So you have you use an earth rod in the property.

In your case I think I would connect the shield of the cy4 core going to the spindle to the star point at the control box end only. Ie don't connect the other end to the earth in the VFD.

Thee start point is connected to the main ground (if that is a earth rod then that)

What you are trying to achieve is not to get any ground loops.

Do you need to take the mains for the VFD into the control box.

[Radu_Andrei]

The mains is of 3 wires, live. neutral and earth, the earth going to the utility pole as well.
I did run a separate earth metal rod, because it said in the vfd manual to avoid having the same ground with a welder, and I do weld quite a bit these days.
From what I understand so far, I.ll unite all shieldings from all components in the utility box, and only at that end, and run everything into an earth, be it back in the mains or the metal rod.
If I got it right, I.ll do so in the next days and come back with the results.

Thank you.

[Clive S]

From what I understand so far, I.ll unite all shieldings from all components in the utility box,

By utility box do you mean where your incoming mains is or your control box?

The star point should be in the control box and then connected to your incoming mains earth.

There are plenty of people that use welders without problems ( it is possible that the ground rod is creating a loop)

I use cat5 cable for signals as it has twisted pairs, but you can use any small screened cable

edit: there are other methods to get rid of EMI using ferrite rings on the incoming mains to the VFD

Good look with the mods

[Radu_Andrei]

Sorry, my mistake. I meant the box where all drivers and sources are, I assume control box it.s the name for that.

[Clive S]

Sorry, my mistake. I meant the box where all drivers and sources are, I assume control box it.s the name for that.

Yes.

[Radu_Andrei]

Hi Clive,
I did what you said with the shieldings and it works. Almost perfect. The only thing left, is that my pc behaves a bit weird sometimes, for a few seconds, when I turn off the vfd, weird meaning the cursor is dancing on my screen for apx 10-15 sec and them returns to normal.
I'll try to use a ferrite ring as you mentioned, for the vfd mains, as that cable is not shielded.
The motors are working fine so far.
So THANK YOU!

I.ll keep in mind your suggestion about a double ballscrew drive and one motor, if any issues will come up with this design. This change on it.s own takes a long time, as I.ll need to build and buy a quite a few extra parts to make it work, so maybe wishful thinking might work this time and function ok as it is.
Even if I have the hardware to add two motors, I.ll avoid this method, as in this last problem I had with noise, the motors were spinning in random ways, not to mention other possible hardware failures which might get them out of sync, and it looks problematic to a point of damaging some expensive parts.
A 5 feet belt might cause some trouble as well, but with enough patience I think I can make it work.
So once again thank you.


As for the second issue, with the limit switches, any idea what I.m doing wrong?
All 6 limits are wired in pairs of two, in series like in the photo, NC, where one wire goes into a numbered pin, and the other into the ground pin. P10 to 12 being used in this case for limits. How should I set this in mach3?

I.m new to this forum and not sure what.s the proper way to post questions. Should I separate the questions and post them in certain categories or ask all the quesions in one thread?