I recently upgraded my X-Carve to a 800W water cooled spindle. As most of the spindles coming from China have a disabled ground pin 4, I grounded the body of the spindle since a 220V 3.5Amps shock would be rather unpleasant. It seems that this makes the Z-probe no longer function. As soon as I hook up the clip to the spindle the X-controller shuts down. Unsafely disconnecting the ground to the spindle fixes this but not really a good option. Is there some alternate wiring that will solve this problem? Since the spindle ground and the X-controller share the same earth ground the only solution that occurs to me is to ground the spindle to a dedicated earth ground which would be kind of ridiculous.
Some pictures and more information would help.
It appears that you are causing a over current issue with the X-controller power supply. That’s bad.
Does your spindle use a VFD that plugs into 110-120 VAC outlet and produce the 220 volts for the spindle or are you running the spindle from a 220 VAC house outlet?
I am running from a 110-120 VAC outlet on the same circuit as the VFD.
Sounds like the ground connection that you’re using on the spindle is at a different potential than the ground on the X Controller. If you have a multimeter, check the resistance between the two grounds and check to see if there is any AC or DC voltage between them. Is the probe ground clip connected to the correct terminal block connection?
Check the voltage (AC and DC) between the two grounds first to avoid damage to the multi-meter.
Resistance between the two grounds is about 20 ohms. The spindle is a direct connection to the ground. The probe is a 5 volt circuit through the X-controller. I don’t think this is going to work. My friend is looking into some solutions that don’t require an electrical connection. That solution might work but I would have to calibrate the probe every time I changed bits. For now the only workable solution is to switch spindle ground off every time I use the probe. This might work since the spindle is receiving no current while using the probe. If there was just some way to make sure I remember to turn the ground back on…
Are you measuring any voltage between the spindle, (when grounded), and the probe clip?