Hello, Ive recently built a 3018 cnc engraver i bought from Banngood. I originally thought the controller board was defective because I have no voltage output at the spindle mortor. I purchased a new board and have the same results. Ive tried 3 different gcode senders, and downloaded the Openbuilds sender this morning with the same results on all of them. Thanks in advance for any help that is offered.
and a few things i should have added above..... the spindle motor works fine when voltage is applied directly to it, and the relay clicks and l.e.d. lights on the board when i turn the spindle on,
Hi @Chuck Carver, what controller board are you using and is it compatible with grbl? The cheap Chinese machines are often "designed" to work with Mach3 control software (designed in quotes because there are often several problems with them) Alex.
Hi Alex, Thanks for the reply. The replacement board i bought is a Sainsmart 3 axis GRBL board. The first software i tried was from Github, then i tried Candle 1.1, and most recently the Openbuilds, which is really awesome. All functions, ie: jogging etc work perfectly, just no voltage being output to spindle. Thanks for any help
Is it this board? 3-Axis GRBL USB Driver Controller Board I had a look at their website but couldn't find any details of how it should be connected. Can I (gently) point out that this is the Openbuilds Forum, so the expertise of people here tends to concentrate on their products. We are a helpful bunch though and you may get lucky and come to the attention of someone familiar with your hardware. Otherwise you may have to ask Sainsmart for support. Alex.
Spindle wired via the Relay? Remembered to move Laser/CNC jumper to CNC spot? M3S1000 to turn on, M5 to turn off Hookup diagram below
Thanks for your reply Peter. Yes i have triple checked both of these, and still no power there. I just cant imagine that 2 new boards have the same problem..... At my real job (lol) i run a $800,000 Mazak horizontal mill, and I cant make my $159 cheapy mill at home work..... Totally stumped on this
I'm pretty sure that's your problem. There's no power to output because there is no power being input. It's a relay. If it were to try to pull 400W from ANY component on the board, your house would burn down.
Maybe i misunderstood your question Kevon. There is a power supply connected to the controller board, as I said, everything works perfect, except no voltage at the spindle output. The relay clicks, the led lights, just no voltage present. All other features work perfectly
Look at the picture @Peter Van Der Walt added. A relay has two different circuits. One circuit is a through put, meaning what goes in goes right back out. The second circuit breaks (or connects depending on how it's wired) the other circuit. That's where the "click" comes from. As of now, your motor output has no voltage output, because it has no voltage input. The little barrel jack used to power the board can't even dream of carrying enough current to power the board AND the motor, hence my "house burning down" reference. If you can test for voltage, you can test for continuity. Test pin 1's continuity to pins 3 and 4 without the spindle being enabled. Repeat for pin 2. There should be continuity on one, and none on the other. Now enable and test again. There will now be continuity on both tests. I have no idea how it's actually wired, so test other possible combinations if that does not work. But what I'm saying is going to hold true.
Thank you so much Kevon for your input. I cant wait to get home and test this out. I will report back my findings, and hopefully I will owe you a cold one or 12...... Thanks again
Kevon, Thank you...... thank you..... thank you!!!!!! It worked! Now im never gonna get any sleep. Lol.
