Has anyone plugged their X-Carve into a UPS? I started a project with a very long carve time (about 4 hours) last night and soon after I started it a storm rolled in and was I pretty sure the power would go out (or glitch) before it was done.
Turns out I was worried about the wrong thing, UGS crapped out on me before the power did. But still it makes me think that adding a UPS may be a good idea. It would ensure that the power to the controller and spindle was clean and spike free and if the power did go out it would give me some time to pause the carve so hopefully I could gracefully restart it later,
Interested to hear what others have done.
UPS would be a good idea for the supporting electronics (Controller (i.e. GRBL or TinyG/G2) and the machine pushing gcode). But as for the spindle and the steppers. It would last very long. But adding one for a ‘blip’ or a brown-out would be okay for a light setup (stock spindle and NEMA17’s) as for users like me with a DWP611 and NEMA23 /w external drivers that push 4.2A- I would need a fairly large APC/UPS. I’ve thought about it. But never added one.
With the 300 watt spindle, I think a 550VA UPS would keep the spindle and controller running for about 3 or 4 minutes.
I am using a laptop to run the gcode sender so it does not need a UPS.
The worst case scenario is that the controller and laptop keep working and spindle powers down (that would be destructive)
A 550VA UPS is pretty cheap (under $60)
http://www.amazon.com/APC-BE550G-Back-UPS-8-outlet-Uninterruptible/dp/B0019804U8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436979616&sr=8-1&keywords=550va+ups
I put mine on a UPS due to me tripping the breaker accidently one time. I bought a 600VA 330 watt one and just hooked that computer and power supplies to it. I have since tripped the breaker again so I think it is a good idea for everyone to think of.
Without an outside power source for the steppers, I think you’d be fairly safe there… If the spindle power stops, so does the stepper power, and the steppers turned off have pretty solid braking force…
It might be a decent option to put together a power supply from automotive or similar type 12-24 volt DC batteries and some kind of trickle charger or even a small solar or wind supplement, as long as a DC powered spindle was being used.
I’m just guessing but if a machine used around 500-600 watts with a spindle, @ 24-48 volts, that might range between 20-40 Amp Hours to run for about one hour.
Good point, the 300 watt DC spindle and motors are all powered from the same power supply.
