How to wire 2.8 jtech laser with quiet cut spindle

Ok, the title gives a hint of what I am trying to accomplish.
First off, specifics about my machine.
First gen 1000mm xcarve with the arduino/gshield with GRBL v1.0c
Quiet cut spindle on separate 48v power supply triggered by 5v signal from pin 11 on the gshield which operates a optical relay then then that triggers a speed controller powering the spindle with a rheostat or pot switch for speed control.
I have the laser set up on a Designs by Phil quick detach mount with a power wire in place.
All that is left is the trigger wire.
Jtech instructions are showing to use pin 11 but as stated earlier that is in use.
I cant seem to find anything that addresses my particular situation.

I have the spindle connection on the 24v power supply available, the one that is controlled by the on/off/logic switch on the power supply itself. Could this be utilized? or is building a switch box to go from laser to spindle and back again in my future?

Does pin 11 act as a cw or ttl ? I ask because currently it is used only as a trigger for the optical relay.

You can also control the rpm using D11 with the setup that you have. There is a way to replace the speed control pot with the PWM signal to control rpm.

[Edit] It’s not an add on. Your speed controller is already wired for this.

Do not have power to both the spindle and laser at the same time. If you want to keep power applied to both spindle and laser at the same time this hookup would need some changes for safety reasons.

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My light bulb just got a helluva lot brighter! Thanks @LarryM!

Talk all day and while it helps a neanderthal like me, A picture is worth a thousand words, yada yada yada.:sweat_smile:

Thanks to the qwinter from hell keeping me out of my shop because of the insane number of hours I have been putting in at my day job, I have finally found a bit of time for the things that I WANT to do.
I have taken the optical relay off of the machine and wired things as shown in the diagaram above , and moved the jumper to the right hand position as shown.
With the 3 way switch engaging the spindle, I opened pic sender to test functionality of the spindle with the new configuration, and on the “doCmd” line i enter M3 S12000 to turn the spindle on. I spins for just a split second, the shuts off again. so it’s getting some sort of signal.
I dont see anything obvious in my grbl settings that pops out at me.0=10 (step pulse, usec)

$1=255 (step idle delay, msec)

$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)

$3=7 (dir port invert mask:00000111)

$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)

$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)

$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)

$10=2 (status report mask:00000010)

$11=0.020 (junction deviation, mm)

$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)

$13=1 (report inches, bool)

$20=0 (soft limits, bool)

$21=0 (hard limits, bool)

$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)

$23=3 (homing dir invert mask:00000011)

$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)

$25=750.000 (homing seek, mm/min)

$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)

$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)

$30=12000. (rpm max)

$31=0. (rpm min)

$100=39.907 (x, step/mm)

$101=39.896 (y, step/mm)

$102=95.032 (z, step/mm)

$110=8000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)

$111=8000.000 (y max rate, mm/min)

$112=1000.000 (z max rate, mm/min)

$120=500.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)

$121=500.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)

$122=50.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)

$130=790.000 (x max travel, mm)

$131=790.000 (y max travel, mm)

$132=100.000 (z max travel, mm)

ok
I have not uploaded @LarryM’s version 1.0c yet, I would like to get the machine back to operating mode before going further.

Any ideas?

Did you remember to put the yellow jumper in the correct position?

It’s to the right side closer to the green molex connector than the now unused potentiometer connector.

Well it was worth a try. That is the correct position.

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Try M3 S6000.

Spin city!

whuzzup with that?

only seems to work from the do cmd liine though
If I use the m3/m5 button near the jog controls back to the original problem.

That method only seems to work up to s8000 s9000 only produces the slight bump again

Change $30=6000

See if you get it to come on using M3 S6000, or do you have to drop back to S3000 to get it to spin?

wont light up from the m3/m5 button,
Will spin w m3s4000 but not 5000

Ok, now we are to an Inventables question. The speed controller is trying to work, but just can’t quite do it. Get in touch with Customer Support to see what they have to say.

The M03 button does show some odd behavior, but I don’t know if it is by design or maybe an issue.

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Can you measure the voltage on the Uno pin 11 when working and not?

Not at my computer to verify, but believe PicSender should be issuing M03 S12000 when M3 button clicked in Spindle mode and M03 S255 in Laser mode. PWM votage should be at 5v.

Speed controller max input signal???

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I reset $30=12000
Pin 11 is sending 4.87-4.88 vdc to the speeed controller with the m3/5 button
Manually entering M3 S6000 sends 2.45 vdc
So pin 11 seems to be doing what it’s supposed to.

From my less than educated understanding, this would seem to point at the speed controller?

Does to me, but no experience with one like it.

Yes, that’s what I was seeing. Didn’t know if that was normal operation or not.

Just for gits and shiggles I attempted to reinstall my optical relay and return the speed control to its previous state with the potentiometer while retaining the on/off/on switch for spindle/laser operation.

That was interesting.

Not only did the spindle not behave as it did prior to all of this, WHen I would powerup and connect pic sender (or ugs) the spindle would briefly spin up and shut down again, not any more. then the wierd thing is m3 and m5 were reversed 5 for on and 3 for off.

Took the optical relaay out and set it back to LarryM’s suggested wiring and sent an email to Inventables customer service.

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Wont be able to get back out to the shop for at least a few days, but will check it when I do.
I do know that I have not changed it with all of this.