Spindle veered direction, bit got stuck, control board unresponsive

Midway through carving a 6mm indentation on plywood, my spindle veered from its direction and got my router bit stuck when it reached the edge of the indentation. The spindle got jammed, and the control board became unresponsive. I can’t turn it off or reset it. Even when I unplug power supply and plug it back in, the spindle still acts jammed. I can also hear clicking sounds coming out of the power adapter. And when I plug it back in after unplugging, there seems to be a short circuit with a pop and sparks.

I can communicate with my control board through my mac, but all physical commands are unresponsive.

Is there a way I can do some sort of reset on the control board using gcode ? I feel this is what is needed.

you’d want to begin splitting the issue into sections, unlug the USB, this may stop the spindle from spinning, IF NOT then it’s an issue on the controller board. most likely the 12V mosfet that feeds the spindle is shorted and will appear burned or melted solder, this is adjacent the spindle output plug on the controller. this being short COULD also cause the power supply to cycle on and off resulting in the slow, pulsing you are seeing.

that said, there are better sources of help and knowledge out there than this forum. 17,000 3018 enthusiasts over here: SainSmart Genmitsu CNC Users Group | Facebook

Seth, thanks a lot for your reply and redirection to the fb group.

Today I spent all day trying to understand Arduino, GRBL, control boards and how to flash them.

• I now know my 3018 runs a camxtool v3.5 (some places they are referred to as a woodpecker control board, although there is no reference about it on my board).

• I successfully flashed an EEPROM Clear command from Arduino IDE to my board, using arduino nano as a base.

• I successfully flashed GRBL 1.1 to my board using same method as above.

• On reconnection, the same issue is happening. This solved nothing.

Looking at the board, I do not see anything melted or burned (I include a photo). However, the power adaptor cable connector does have a burned pointer. Could this be an issue with the power adaptor?

Here is a new video I just recorded showing what happens when I connect the power supply to the board.

Photos of control board and power adaptor pointer.


This is your same issue… it is a short in the spindle output Moffett

If you don’t have the part and aren’t comfortable soldering I would just purchsde a new board, they are about $30

https://www.amazon.com/Controller-GREESUNY-Connection-Engraving-1810-PRO/dp/B091MVY72F?keywords=3018+controller+board+v3.5&qid=1637085087&sr=8-13&linkCode=sl1&tag=hisnhershan00-20&linkId=da8d8ac51a1aaf251b8b4b06eb4616ac&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Thanks for reply and post redirection. I had in fact come across that post earlier on, but decided to browse on as it pertained to the x-carve.

Could you help pointing out what is the Moffet that might have the short ? Even though I already ordered a new control board from my supplier, I’d like to try and have a go at fixing this one.

Thanks again Seth ! Really appreciate it

I believe its this one, (#1) but I don’t have the schematic for the v3.5 board to be sure… ir would be one of these 3 mosfets for certain, and usually its as close as possible to the actual spindle plug.

Gotcha ! Thanks for the input. I managed to find a schematic but still having a hard time identifying it (never read an electronics schematic before)

Lovely… they labeled the schematic with a ton of question marks… this is the failed component.

Mine actually failed twice (my own failed twice, I wired in some extra let’s and they shorted out while cleaning out my enclosure)
But the failure was a open (always off). Yours is a short (connected all the time).

So, just to close this thread. I received a new control board and everything is working again. Unfortunately I had to re-send the damaged board back to my seller for a better deal (he ended up replacing it for free), so I will not be able to fix mine and offer any step by step help. It was confirmed though, Mosfet #3 got fried.

Thanks Seth for all the assistance !

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