[antoineg]

Hi guys


So this is my second post. It seems like every time a make a little progress a new problem arises. I presume many of you have had the same pains.

Now that my problems with my motors being unreliable and making some strange screeching sounds intermittently after restarting my machine are have been for the most part taken care of
Iv'e developed some major noise problem

My machine runs with a lead shine MX4660 and Mach3. I have 4 425oz 3/8 shaft motors. I've cheaped out and bought 5 limit switches from china and also a 2.2kw spindle with a HY inverter. Thing were working really well with the machine until I fired up the spindle. I've noticed that my limit switches trigger randomly and my motors make some extra little jogs when I stop moving in one direction. All my wires are shielded and i've moved the vfd as far away as I could from the machine. I initially had the spindle power cable running in the cable drag chain but took that out too remove the proximity to other wires. None of these attempts have changed anything.

So my question to the group is the following
1- Should I invest in high quality switches like the the Pepper+fuchs or is that unlikely to solve my issues given that the RF is still present
2- Where is the RF noise being received for my motors? Is it at the the level of the Leadshine drivers or is it closer to where the motors are? I presume that the black connectors from the motors connecting to the orange shielded wires purchased from cncrp are shielded as well or could they be acting like antennas if they're not?
3- Where is the RF most likely coming from? I've read that VFDs are probably the most common source of significant VF but moving it behind and enclosed cement wall did not change anything. My suspicion is that most of the RF is coming from the spindle itself.

4- So far thing i've read to take care of the problem include the following:
-Keep the VFD wire going to the spindle short
- don't run the wire going to the spindle close to limit switches and motor wires
- read about capacitors placed at the drivers input for each coupled limit switches (x+/x- y+/y- A-) as a way to take care of noise issue for limit switches

I was hoping to get going with my machine but because of the limit switches triggering and the motors taking additional micro steps when stopping movement in one direction my system is unreliable for now


HELP!


Antoine

[ahren]

Antoine,

Electrical noise can impact your drivers, and could be causing spurious "step" pulses if this is what you are seeing, but it will not cause the motors to move on their own independent of the motor drivers. Noise is almost certainly impacting the logic-level communication in your system, not the power phases of the motors.

Our motor cables are shielded, and the shield ground is tied to pin 2 (the black wire) on our panel mount connectors:

5A Bulkhead Enclosure Connector | CNCRouterParts

The black wires should go to case ground, and your case should be tied to earth ground from your AC cable.

The noise you are seeing is almost certainly from your inverter. There may be an issue with your VFD, but that will be difficult to diagnose. If you haven't already, I'd suggest moving your inverter to a different circuit from the rest of the controls. You could also invest in a filter like this one to try and help with the noise the VFD is generating:

https://smile.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-...pp+lite+isobar

For spurious limit switch tripping, you will want to try and get rid of the electrical noise for sure (especially if you're getting extra steps). However, if you are using the Smoothstepper you can filter out selective events to require a longer pulse to register. It can be helpful to set this up for your emergency stop and limit switch triggers. This is under the Plugin Control->ESS Config menu in Mach 3.

Best regards,

Ahren

[antoineg]

Hi Ahren

Thanks for your reply

Ok I will try what you are suggesting. Just to clarify: The black wires all tie into my electrical box ground and that in turn is brought to the ground terminal of my ac power source (Mean Well 48 switching- green wire)?


I am in the process of setting up the ESS and hopefully that will help sort my issue. Do I need to uninstall Mach3 so not to have the mach3 driver install or will Mach3 ignore the driver once the ESS is installed?

Thanks
Antoine

[antoineg]

Hi Ahren


For got to mention that my VFD runs on 240V and as such is on it's own circuit. For that reason I don't think the Filter would work and/or be compatible.

[ahren]

Antoine,

OK -- I wasn't sure if you were running your DC power supply off of 120 or 240 (the supply supports both with a voltage selector switch). The filter would be used for your controller and PC, isolating these from noise created by the VFD if any of it is travelling over the AC lines.

You do not need to uninstall Mach 3 to install the Smoothstepper. Just follow our guide for Smoothstepper Setup:

Ethernet Smoothstepper Software Setup Guide | CNCRouterParts

Best regards,

Ahren

[antoineg]

Quick update on my situation with noise:

I installed the smooth stepper and also ground the shielding ground from the spindle motor to the ground of the VFD. I also took the black ground leads from each of the axis motors and grounded them to my electrical box and to the ground of the switching power. This solved the issue of noise for my motors and I am no longer getting extra steps with movements.

In the smooth stepper setup I added a 100 microsecond filter for each of the limit switches. My switches are working really well since without spontaneous triggering. I didn't know how long that delay should be but increased it slowly to that level.

Anyways I want to thank you for all you insight and help. My machine and system are now working perfectly

Antoine

[ahren]

Antoine,

That's great -- glad to hear you are up and running!

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts