VFD and Air cooled spindle

connect the "U, V, W " to the motor 1, 2, 3(U to 1, V to 2, W to 3). Number 4 is for ground

Thank you. I ended up using an ohm meter to figure this out, not sure why I didn’t think of using one sooner. Tested it on the spindle and found #4 was isolated. Curious as to why I didn’t get a reading when touching 4 and the outside case of the spindle but it’s water cooled and I do not want to take it apart. In the instruction video showing the settings change they don’t even hook a ground up to it, which is questionable. R,andT are for the 220v and I assume I use #9 for both the spindle ground and the main power ground?

On my 2.2kw VFD (purchased from automationtechnologiesinc.com), I have R and S hooked up to 220v and ground going to 9 (also use 9 for spindle ground). U, V, and W are hooked up to the spindle. Hope that helps!

Thank you! Yes I ended up hooking 220v to R and S and then neutral to T. I used 9 for ground on the vfd and ground from the spindle. First test went great although I discovered my water pump does not have enough head height to reach as high as I need it to go. I have to source a new pump, but at least no leaks and I got it to spin up to 24000 rpm with no issues.

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My shipping email just arrived, so I should be getting everything except the 1800mm makerslides and the xcontroller this week. The xcontroller is back ordered until 3-17-17 so I will have to be patient and its not like I can build anything without the 1800mm Y axis.

I want the xcontroller to control the VFD this way when I hit the Estop it shuts off the spindle as well. I know the vfd allows for 0-10v speed control but the documentation is lacking as to how this would hook up to the xcontroller. I see there is a 10v and gnd on the xcontroller and I believe on the VFD I use 10V. Do I just ground it to the same ground as the spindle and the 220 from the main?

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I’m not sure to be honest…I’m still using the old electronics. Maybe one day I’ll upgrade to the x-controller, or just build my own.

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Been thinking about the 800w air cooled spindle again and I had to read this topic again.

Some great links for VFDs here.

I came across another source for VFDs today.

https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Shopping/Catalog/Drives/GS2_(115_-z-_230_-z-_460_-z-_575_VAC_V-z-Hz_Control)/GS2_Drive_Units_(115_-z-_230_-z-_460_-z-_575_VAC)

It has a better manual than I have seen for some of the other VFDs out there.

Also the link for VFDs from dealerselectric.com had a good manual page.

Like for the Teco-Westinghouse VFD.

I am setting up my X-Carve with a 110V VFD and and want to control the spindle speed through PWM. I figured out through lots of searching that I need to connect the 0-10V to V1, GND to ACM, and Spindle to FOR. I don’t know what to hook the VFD DCM connection to. Would that also go to the same GND that goes with the Spindle connections? VFD and spindle were about $400.00 so don’t want to fry something. Any help would be appreciated.

Spindle (0-10V) -------------------- V1
GND ---------------------------------- ACM
Spindle (PWM) -------------------- FOR
??? ----------------------------------- DCM

DCM is common ground for digital signal controls. this is from the manual for the KL-VFD15 model page 7.
Just found this page.
Very helpful:

Ok here is some more stuff…
http://xyz-cnc.com/discuss/topic/6/using-a-smoothstepper-with-spindle-g540-and-vfd/

I have managed to get my VFD working nice. So if anyone has any questions I can help.

I now have all my stuff working. Going to create a video to show how I got it all working.

Hey. I would love to know how to set mine up to be controlled by g code from ugs via xcontroller.
My friend has a strange machine with 3 wires for spindle control. X1,com,gnd.
His built in vfd was hugely underpowered for his 2.2kw spindle so we upgraded the vfd to a 2.2kw version.
Question is which inputs are which and how can I check?

Can you take some pics and give me the model of both the spindle and VFD?

Working on getting pix.
Am I wrong in assuming there are two types of control? Digital and analog? My guess analog is 1-10 volts. And digital has finer tuning. I’m just not sure which is the one I need (prob analog). And how to wire it. I’ll post pix of vfd io and instruction manual.

MYSWEETY 110V 1.5KW Water Cooled Spindle Motor CNC Spindle Motor +1.5KW Converter + 65MM Clamp Mount + 13pcs ER11 Collet + 5M Water Pipe + 110V Water https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N1EJEQ1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_rFSAGxpCpw18A

You have the same type of inverter I do.
The x-controller has what you need
Spindle speed control (0-5VDC PWM or 0-10V) This is 2 different options.
In order to make the spindle work you need to use a relay to turn it on and off. The Variable speed is controlled separate from the speed.
I am using a relay to contact these 2 pins: DCM and FOR
The PWM is connected as follows. ACM is ground and VI is the (0-10v) signal pin on the X-controller
You can test your setup using a meter to measure the voltage during a air carve run.
These VFD’s do not work with PWM that is 5v. (Unless you do some work around.)

My setup uses a Gecko G540 which requires the octocoupler to be powered by the 10v on the VFD. The X-Controller does not need this as it does not use an octocoupler. So if you see others with 3 wires going to the VFD this is most likely the reason. The 10volts is for powering up the octocoupler that is used to isolate the signal from the controller to the VFD. The 0-10v is a PWM output that tells the VFD to spin up the spindle at a rate defined by the voltage input to frequency conversion it does internally. The VFD will show you the frequency on the display.

Before doing anything make sure you take careful steps. It took me an entire day to get mine setup even though I am good with electronics.

Your friend who has the strange setup is not strange at all. Those are probably used for the same 3 wires I use but without a model or manual I do not know.
I only know about the controller I have.
Here is the manual for mine. https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/02/VFD15-22.pdf

You have to make sure you do not blow out the inputs on the X-controller since they are not buffered by anything. (At least from what I saw in the schematic.)

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A wiring diagram of this would be just what I need.

This is how I have my Gecko board hooked up.

Now for you here is how you would hook up the X-carve output to the VFD.

Because There is no octocoupler on the X-carve you will have to make sure that there will not be any reverse current that will stress out the X-Controller input. From the schematic it is tied directly to the pin. I would hook up a circuit that isolates the X-controller and the VFD. Here is a link to a single channel isolation circuit.

If you do use this optoisolation I would have to modify the schematic as you would need to to power it.
I hope this helps as I am not sure what you have and how your going to set up your system.
The PWM can be used to trigger if you so choose. Its just you have to figure out how to set up your G-code to output a constant voltage out that will represent a logic high. 2v or greater would be a logic high.
The MCU inside the X-controller can only handle 40ma of current flow from a any of the pins. Also you should be aware that the voltage reference for the PWM will be set in the firmware. You can measure the output by setting the necessary G-code setting for the PWM. use of the relays are not necessary. You could use a mosfett as well. Its up to you on what you want to do.

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Wow that’s a lot of info. I’m gonna have to reread it a few times.
Thanks. Now I’m beginning to understand. What settings do I need to play with for the vi to work/scale properly?

Took me 3 days to figure it out for my setup.

Adding to my previous about using external circuitry with the PWM.
If you do use the PWM I would use a transistor circuit to prevent too much current flow to the MCU witch is 40ma max.
A simple transistor acting as a switch would be perfect for you. Here is a good article on the subject.