HSD SPINDLE WIRING

[ronbarnes]

I am finaly to the point of wiring up my spindle (HSD 4 hp) single phase on my new 4x8 standard and the vld has a big orange cable that runs to spindle and a black cable that (i think goes to 220 plug in) my question is how to wire fan? and isn't their a wire that goes from the vld to my black control box? It's actually a black cpu box. the fan is for 24 volt so do I just run into the vld with that?

thanks Ron

[Brady Watson]

Ron,
There is a separate line for the cooling fan, which attaches to a dedicated 24v power supply in the control box. It should be off to the side away from the rest of the electronics, if I remember correctly.

-B

[dvanr]

http://www.shopbottools.com/files/SB...9HSDManual.pdf

The documentation covers most of it, except for the little grey 24VDc module. The Module needs to be mounted inside the box. I wired mine so that it always runs when the control box is on.
Check out Support , Documentation
There is an install doc for the Colombo as well

[ronbarnes]

Thanks guys, I got the fan going and it runs and I also got the spindle running but I guess we can not control on/off or speeds on the keyboard? I say this only because I don't have anything left to wire up(from the vld to control box). I tried the dry run or test spin but nothing happened and that is after I installed the usb port disc and drivers disc. I did have a bit of a hard time trying to find a com port as com 4 in the instructions was not connecting and so it went to a com 3 but still had or am having issues finding it. Any thoughts ? I wanted to also add that after 2 days I got the x-car lined up but when I engaged the pinion on the x and y motors I get a very erratic response when I push the axis along by hand, It is as if it's skipping or hangs up as I push it?????Thanks Ron

[myxpykalix]

Other have cautioned against pushing the carriage while gears engaged for possible damage to the electronics.
Having said that when you pushed it could you tell if it was a consistent noise that occurred with the equal revolution of the gear regardless of its position in the X or Y position? If this noise occurred when it was on opposite ends of the table then it sounds like it might be the gear on the motor as opposed to the track gear.
Slop that baby up with plenty of grease.(thats not the first time i've heard that!!)

[Towersonline]

Ronald, I also am in the process of assembling my PRS. I'm at the point that the x-car is on the rails and the rails are squared up. I can push the car up and down the rails with one finger and wery little restance. The one problem I am having is that one of the wheels is high and its high down the length of the rail. This tells me that the gantry has a slight twist or the end plates are not square. You might want to drop your motors and be sure the x-car slides up and down the rails smoothly.

[ronbarnes]

Bill and Jack,
Thanks for the reply. If I disengage the motors on all axis everything runs perfect, it is only when the motors are engaged that it does that. Now when I push the x or y car I don't need to push it more that a very few inches and it hangs up. I had forgotten about (the warning ) on pushing the car when the motors are hooked up. oops, Power is off of course. I did notice that when power is on the x and y axis is rock solid on the rails and offer zero play of any type. Bill-as far as the x car and wheels I had to work on that for 2 solid days easy and finally lossened up the rails and gantry gussets both then started at one end and clamped the car over every bolt then tighten down and I also shimmed as needed. After that and only after that did my car fit on those rails. I did have a few small high spots say about a 1/32" but with just a bit of hand preseeure downward it was fixed. And as I mentioned with the motors disengaged she runs smooth (not smooth like a Chinese built lathe but like a swiss time piece) ha. So now I will stew over the fact I may have ruined my motors dry running them??great

[richards]

Ron,

I turn on my Colombo spindle by adding this line at the beginning of all of my sbp files:

SO, 1, 1
PAUSE 4

After that line is read by the control software, a prompt pops up that tells me to push the START button on the control box. Then, when I push the ENTER key, the program pauses for four seconds to let the spindle get to speed.

I turn the spindle off by adding this line to the end of each sbp file:

SO, 1, 0

I can also start the spindle by entering keyboard mode (K key) and toggling output # 1 ON. As long as output #1 is on, each sbp file will automatically prompt me to push the START button each time a file is run.

You can expect erratic/rough movement when pushing the gantry by hand. (As Jack pointed out, it's not a good idea to do that except for very short distances because the motors act as generators and some stepper drivers can be destroyed by the voltage that is generated.) A stepper motor, when off, aligns itself with magnetic poles inside the motor. At rest it tries to stay lined up with the magnetic pole. When you turn the motor by hand, you will feel a very definite 'cogging' as the motor goes from pole to pole. That roughness is normal and has nothing to do with a motor's ability to run smoothly when its under the control of a stepper driver (Gecko or Oriental Motor, depending on the model of your machine).

Without special add-on electronics, you cannot change the speed of the spindle from the Shopbot keyboard. You have to do that directly from the VFD front panel. On my Delta VFD for my Colombo, I can enter the desired RPM directly. On other VFD controllers you might have to enter a frequency instead of an RPM. If that is the case for your VFD, just make a simple chart that lists the frequency in one column and the resulting RPM in another column. Remember that line frequency (60hz or 50hz - depending on which part of the world you live in) multiplied by the frequency number that you enter into the VFD equals RPM. For example 60 X 250 = 15,000 RPM, 60 X 225 = 13,500 RPM.

I'm sitting at a Linux computer so I can't walk you through the steps of checking which port has been assigned to your USB to serial device. But if I remember correctly, for Windows XP, you click Start, click Control Panel, click System, click Hardware, click Device Manager, click ports (COM and LPT), and then right click on the USB serial port to see its COM assignment. My memory isn't very reliable, so someone else may need to post the correct sequence of key strokes.

Good luck.

Edited:
Ron, you posted while I was composing. Your motors can handle manual movement with the power off, but some stepper drivers cannot. The PRS has either the Gecko stepper drivers or the Oriental Stepper drivers. Both stepper drivers are robust and can probably handle an occasional manual 'opps'. If the stepper motors move properly with power applied, you've been given a 'get out of jail free card' - this time. ;>)

[rhfurniture]

Mike,
As a just about to buy a spindle person myself (in a 50 Hz electric area), I have been trying to sort out a lot of confusion arising from your last post in this topic:

"Remember that line frequency (60hz or 50hz - depending on which part of the world you live in) multiplied by the frequency number that you enter into the VFD equals RPM. For example 60 X 250 = 15,000 RPM, 60 X 225 = 13,500 RPM."

Surely spindles are simple 2 pole motors, that turn once per electric cycle. So at 60 Hz or 3600 cycles/min it will turn at 3600rpm. So if the vfd say's 250 Hz, then the motor will turn at 250x60(secs)=15000 rpm whatever the input frequency. Please correct me if I am wrong.

R.

[richards]

Ralph,

Here's a quote from www.patchn.com/vfd.html that explains how it is supposed to work:

"Basic Theory

The basic equation for a 3 phase electric motor is: Speed = (120 * F) / number of poles where:
120 = electrical constant, F = frequency and # of poles is determined at motor construction ie: a 2 pole, 4 pole or 6 pole machine. If we look at a 2 pole machine and 60 HZ supply, the speed calculates out to 3600 RPM. The only way to vary the speed is to change the F in the equation. We can accomplish this with a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD)."

It's important to note that the 120 in the example above is the AC cycle X 2. Remember the sine wave passes through the zero point 2X every cycle, once when going from + to - and once when going from - to +, otherwise it wouldn't be alternating current.

There's some more information from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_drive that explains it even better.

EDITED: Because the spindle motors are 2-pole motors, it is possible to just multiply the AC line frequency by the frequency that you set into the VFD to compute the desired spindle speed.