One of the things I like about my 1000mm XC is that I can hit the pause button and turn off the spindle, effectively pausing a job indefinitely, walk away and come back to resume the carve later.
The Pro’s pause button also pauses the carve, but is there any way to shut off the spindle without cancelling the job?
Thanks
jVB
I haven’t found a way to do this, so I am curious to know as well.
I also would like to do this, but in addition to shutting of the spindle I would like to be able to turn on the spindle independent of running a job. For instance on the X-carve one could turn the router on manually and jog the machine to do a rip cut, a little unconventional but it got the job done.
I would like to have this feature too. There are time where I would like to clean out the dust collection or need to clean the actual bit from buildup or the plastic liners that sometimes get spun around it. I can’t stop it without messing up the entire project.
Is there a way to pause the CNC and “pause” the spindle then continue the project I am not aware of?
Only do this if you feel comfortable as I know there are newish users with Pros. But if you enable the safety door option in the firmware (looks to be disabled by default), you’ll get the behavior you’re all looking for.
Neil, Thanks for your reply. So, is that just removing the // on that line of code?
If so, once that is done, how do we stop the spindle when the job pauses?
Thanks again!
jVB
Reading some about the Safety Door. Do you know to what pins the safety switch would need to be connected?
Thanks.
j-
This would definitely be a nice feature. I appears that this is code that must be compiled once changed before you can use it. We would also need instructions on how to do that and where to put it when done. If you read the comments in the code it says that the pause is defined as the safety door input. So as Neil said, this would give you the behavior that when you press the pause button the spindle will be stopped. There are no hardware changes to make this happen if I am reading this right.
Compiling and flashing would all be done with the Arduino IDE. It really is pretty simple, but, again, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re not comfortable with it.
I am not Inventables support. I’m happy to help if I can.
That’s correct.
This is a picture of what I assume is the spindle controller inside the case. I’m wondering if a switch or relay could be added here to shut off the spindle. I really would rather have a switch to be able to shut down the spindle manually rather than have it shut off when I hit pause. There are times when I’m “air cutting” to watch the actual toolpath when I want the gantry to move but don’t need the spindle spinning.
On my little X-Carve. I just have a switch on the side of the table that controls an outlet on the table where the router is plugged in.
If I had a switch to kill the spindle, I could leave it closed and the spindle could be controlled normally by the controller, but then I could kill it as needed.
Any thoughts on this controller?
Thanks
joe-
You could just put a switch on the AI1 lead to the spindle control.
D
Thanks! That would be ideal. Where is that located? I don’t see it on this controller.
Have you done this or do you know of others who have? I’d hate to fry something.
Thanks again.
j-
Ahh, shoot. I see it now. Second one from the left?
So breaking that connection will shut down the spindle without any issues?
Don’t use the machine for what you want to accomplish. If you want to rip cut, maybe use a table saw. The machine is not made to rip cut as you will probably break a bit manually moving the machine. You could move it up and down the x and y axis, and remove a bit of material at a time. The best option would just to set a straight line where you want it, and let the machine do it’s job. A few folks have spoke about air carving. An IOT relay would help with this. I have one and I love it. I can set a carve up and go about my business in the shop. When the carve is complete everything turns off. With the relay and air carving you can set the router above the material on your envelope and at the end of the cut prompts just select “skip this step”. Then the router won’t start. But remember air carving is hard as some makers carve multiple layers and it would be a gross waste of time to watch the machine and almost impossible to keep track mentally on how it will actually turn out.
Just checking back in on this, Can anyone say if switching the AI1 contact as suggested in an earlier post is an acceptable way to shut off the spindle? I’d like to try this but don’t want to damage anything.
Thanks
joe-
I have been using this setup extensively with my laser and it works with no issues so far. I would estimate 30+ hours…
Oh great, thanks. I installed a relay and switch on mine and it’s working great. Thanks for the info. That’s just what I needed.
Bumping this thread again to see if anyone from Inventables chimes in to let us know if they’re planning to implement a user-friendly way to do this. I’m not comfortable with flashing the Arduino, but I would really really like to be able to stop the spindle when I pause a carve!
If you are okay with opening your controller box, simply put a switch on the AI1 connection and that will do it.
j-
