Hi , I have an X-Carve that I have just finished setting up. In Easel, the X Y and Z axes respond properly. When I test the spindle it does not respond to being turned on / off in the Easel test. It does turn on when I flip the Spindle switch to ‘on’. I have checked the wiring and it seems to be okay - I’m not sure what to try next. Any help would be much appreciated.
Can you post a picture of your wiring on the homing switch / spindle control inputs to the gShield?
Actually, which spindle do you have?
I think Easel’s spindle control only works (naturally) with their original 24V spindle. If you have a router like the Dewalt 611 and want that to be controlled, you will need to buy a relay and install it such that the 24V signal closes the 120V connection and starts the router. You can search the forums for “relay” and you will find a few threads that have a good example and diagram drawn up by some other users on here.
The spindle is the standard 24V spindle.
may be a basic thing that I’m sure you’ve tested, but in the photo the switch is on OFF. It needs to be on LOGIC for spindle control to work
Wiring looks good. You do need to have the spindle switch in the Logic position for spindle control.
If you have a DeWalt 611, you need to add a relay if you want to control the spindle, based on other forum topics, I chose the one in this post, and it works great: Relay thread
If you go that way, you also need to tell Easel (on the Machine dialog) that you have automatic control of the spindle, and set the RPM to 180000. That way it will send high enough voltage to the relay to turn it on reliably.
-Kelly
Kelly,
I am hoping that you can verify something else for me, if you are able to. And if you can’t, I hope that someone else can answer these questions for me.
I have one of these relays for my spindle control and another for my vac.
When wiring the vac do I wire the #3 pin on the relay to the A3 input on the Arduino and the #4 pin on the relay to GRD on the Arduino?
Or do I have this incorrect. I am hoping to wire up my control box this weekend.
Happy X-Carving!!!
There’s a good picture and information in this thread: Wiring a solid state relay - #2 by AlanDavis
@MichaelGrigg I think you’re talking about the way the relay is wired in this image.
I did mine like this. This way you still get to use the On/Off/Logic switch on the power supply to control things.
If I were going to add shop-vac control (which I may in the future), I’d just carry the line from the spindle relay on to the shop-vac relay, one signal to control both.
As to the speed/swaying questions, well the machine can go faster, but it isn’t going to be doing that when you’re carving. If I keep my hands on the laptop, it doesn’t sway as much either.
There may be a precision impact, I haven’t done anything that precise with it yet, and I may have to adjust my plan as I go.
-Kelly
Check in the machine setup menu, make sure that the RPM says something like 12,000, and not 0 or 1.
Also, try going into the machine inspector, under “advanced” in the machine menu. In the Console line, type this:
m3 s12000
and see if the spindle comes on. If it does, type:
m5
to turn it back off again.
If that works, try to export your Gcode from easel (again under the advanced section of the machine menu) and open it with a text editor. At the beginning of the file, you should see that same command, M3 S12000. If it’s not there, run the machine setup routine again and make sure you specify Automatic Spindle Control.
Thank you Kelly for sharing the video and information.
That is a possibility, but it would be nice to be able to control the vac with a separate command. This way I can enter a command and have access to just the vac for cleaning up when the job is complete. And with an independent command I do not have to worry about the laminate trimmer kicking on.
I decided to put the 611 on a relay, but I also put switches near the computer wing for the 611 and the vacuum. That way, I can control the 611 manually AND by relay, and I can turn the vacuum off if I don’t need it.
If you’re running everything from a single circuit, you may want to install some kind of a timed relay for the vacuum to keep both machines from kicking on at the same time, since that could potentially cause a huge initial current draw and pop smaller circuit breakers. Or just run the X-Carve necessary components from one circuit and run the excess (vacuum, etc.) from a second circuit.