Game on!

[Voicecoil]

So the last few days have been a "getting it all working" scenario. First off was a power problem: I'd had some issues with the control box and other gear (typically with big SMPS) tripping out the RCCB in the workshop, and as soon as I tried to power up the VFD it did it every time. Investigation showed that the whole workshop was on a 30mA trip, fine for a domestic ring main, but unlikely to be stable with a couple of big EMI filters on the line, I've come across such issues before. Thankfully I have a humungous (1.5KVA) isolation transformer I use when developing switch mode supplies, putting that in the line has at least enabled me to get going. looks like I'm going to have to have a word with the estate to get a more realistically rated breaker fitted Then came the joys of programming the VFD (a Sunfar 300 - the more usual Huanyang doesn't go high enough for a 4 pole spindle), although the manual (or at least the newer version of it) isn't so bad there's a couple of things that vary between ambiguous and rather misleading. Anyway finally I've managed to get the spindle spinning (and the right way round!!) and sorted out stopping and starting from UCCNC. This showed up and interesting twist in that for survivability's sake you need a high voltage open collector O/P from the AXBB-E to switch the spindle On/Off as it's switching something that seems to vary between 5.5 and 6.5V; OK so you could use one of the Port 2 isolated outputs. BUT the switching input is referred to the 5V/processor ground on the AXBB-E through the 0-10V speed control line, NOT the 24V "machine" ground that the isolated outputs run from, so the choice is to either common all the grounds up, or get creative: I chose the latter and added a wee MOSFET on the output of Port1 p17 to buffer it. Then lastly I had some issues with limits triggering when the spindle started, after some parping about this was solved by tying the 24V ground to earth but floating the 5V ground.