[Kenny Duval]

The light has sort of gone off after seeing the following.

+12V is not necessary, +5V and ground needed
PWM = TTL (0V or +5V), There are no negative pulse. The duty cycle give the speed from 400 (0% duty cycle)to 6000 rpm (100% duty cycle)
F/R and S/P active on level not at level change (levels must be maintained)=>
LOW for F/R = reverse HIGH = Forward
LOW for S/P = stop HIGH = On

So before I hook this up I'd like someone to double check my thinking as I am a "Clark Griswald" level electrician. Following the above I need to take a small 5 volt power supply and connect it to the GND and 5v pins. The PWM would be pin 14 out of the PC. I could then use output 1 on the Gecko to trigger Start/Stop and use output 2 on the Gecko to trigger FWD/REV. Correct. I could also tap a solid state relay into output 1 to trigger the coolant pump. Correct?

[lcvette]

Start/stop needs to be connected to ground to enable. Disconnect from ground to disable.

I believe reverse needs a +5v TTL high signal... But can't find my old manual to verify... Easy enough to test though.

Chris

[Potatohead908]

If a guy was going to do the belt drive and bearing upgrade from bone stock would it not make sense to go to the 3hp model and gear it for like 10-12k rpm? Wouldn't that take it to like 1.25-1.5hp? If you were using the stated hp rating. Do we know if the stated hp rating is accurate? Hoss lists bearings that will take this rpm. I have a treadmill motor but have not purchased the kbmm board. Reading about the treadmill motor failures I'm debating on just going to one of these motors.

[lcvette]

My new driver actually runs the motor at 8k, I can tell you, the bearings get pretty warm above 7000rpm, I am running the angular contacts with kluber grease and there just isn't enough support. I would love to machine the head to allow for a second row of bearings, but that is difficult with just one mill.

[Potatohead908]

My new driver actually runs the motor at 8k, I can tell you, the bearings get pretty warm above 7000rpm, I am running the angular contacts with kluber grease and there just isn't enough support. I would love to machine the head to allow for a second row of bearings, but that is difficult with just one mill.

Are you running the G0704? I wonder how much it would cost to have it machined? Is what your thinking of able to be done on another G0704? I met a local guy on here who has one too so we are planning on doing some machining for each other. That has to be a beast of a motor compared to stock, which is where I'm at.

[lcvette]

Yes it's aG0704 and Yeah it's strong, very strong!

If you plan to run it that high, I definitely recommend a higher grade bearing at the very least. Also, the length of the spindle quill shaft is very long and mounting a pulley on it causes some vibration, I recommend using the second version of Hoss's belt drive that mounts the pulley in the gear drive barrel. I also would recommend against the timing belt as it is a cause of vibration also, I would make some poly-v pulleys (ribbed serpentine style).

Chris

[Kenny Duval]

The PWM signal can be pulled directly from Pin 14 correct? No need to go through a bob or anything else? I am waiting for a little more info from Automation Tech before I connect Mach to it but the motor plate is made and the motor is mounted. I can at least mill using the push button control until I am sure of how to connect it. I think I can do the following.

+5V and ground needed <-- These come from an external 5v 2amp wall wart.
PWM = TTL (0V or +5V) <-- I think this can come directly from pin 14 of the parallel port. It would normally feed the G540 but I and going to tap the connector on the G540 board to pull it out.
F/R and S/P <--- These will come from Output pins 5 and 6 on the Gecko. 1 for Start stop the other for Forward Reverse. The S/P will also feed the ground on the Relay to trigger coolant. I'll also wire in a switch after the relay so that I can manually trigger coolant for cleanup.

I think that will make the most of what I can get out of the Gecko.
LOW for S/P = stop HIGH = On

[lcvette]

I have not tried connecting directly to the pwm input, I am running mine with a C41 pwm to analog spindle board. It works fairly well, a little off at the very bottom and top of the rpm range but very close between 1000 and 7000rpm. I have some tuning left and want to try using a feedback to my new smoothstepper to see if I can dial it in a bit more.

Before you add external power, You need to check the back of the small PCB board, if there are two solder bridges between the ground pins and 5v pins then no external ground or 5v is required and should NOT be connected. I discovered that bridging these pins is the easiest best way to accomplish powering the board.

Once you solder those joints (IF they were not soldered from the factory, some are some aren't) it will eliminate the manual keypad function. The display screen will remain functional for rpm and fwd rev readings but buttons will no longer work.

If you need to be able to switch between mach3 control and the manual control pad it comes with, you can do this by putting a switch between the csk 2 screw green terminal block pins (jumpered from the factory with a small piece of solid metal wire. It is located next to the analog input green screw terminal block on the small pcb. With that jumper closed you are in CNC mode, with it open the keypad becomes functional again.

For start/stop on mine, shorted to ground is start (ON) and open is stop (OFF), I have simply put a jumper from the GND pin to the start/stop pin so it is always ON and let the pwm signal dictate if the spindle turns. This may not be the safest method in the event some noise triggers the spindle so use this method at your own risk. I wired it as such to save outputs.

How that helps!

Chris

[Kenny Duval]

That may explain some of my confusion. When I put the volt meter on the +5 line there was already 5 volts on it.

[lcvette]

Yes, way to many confusing things about the instructions, I am writing an easy to understand manual for the motor driver setup with schematics and diagrams so none else has to struggle like I did... Hopefully it helps!

[lcvette]

So yours had the soldered bridges, so if you jumper from and to start/stop you could connect your 0-10v from the g540 to the analog input and you should be ready to try running it if you wanted to try it that way.

[Kenny Duval]

So yours had the soldered bridges, so if you jumper from and to start/stop you could connect your 0-10v from the g540 to the analog input and you should be ready to try running it if you wanted to try it that way.

I understood this on the previous DC controller as the P1 and P3 feed the ground and +voltage to 7 and 9 on the Gecko. I see the analog 0-10v input has a ground terminal as well. My brain says that the G540 should be fed the input voltage from a power supply and then pin 8 heads back to the 0-10 input of the BLDC controller. Do I need to run a ground back to somewhere from the BLDC driver 0-10 terminal.? I would think so but again my 'Clark Griswald" has already blown up a G540.

[lcvette]

You treat the grd and input on the driver like p1 and p3, the g540 is sending a 0-10v signal on those two wires... I need to look at the g540 manual because it's been a while, I'll check it now.

[Kenny Duval]

My understanding is the G540 does not supply the voltage. It needs an external power source up to 12 volts across pins 7 and 9 and then sends out a variable voltage on pin 8 in relation to the PWN signal Mach is sending it on pin 14.

[lcvette]

Correct, you need an external 12v power supply, wall plug or whatever would be fine, I like a real power supply for their stable output vs the wall transformer types for spindle control as the input and output are relative to one another from my experience.

I'm not sure about where to grab the ground required going to the driver though. My guess is the grd input from the power supply but in not 100% and don't want to tell you wrong. I'm digging a bit more on it.

[lcvette]

You might check it that way with a volt meter to see if your getting 0-10v output from the vfd out and grd of the g540. If so i would imagine you are good to go.

[Kenny Duval]

A little progress in the right direction. The new Gecko is wired back in and I have managed to get at the very least the start stop LED to function via M3 and M5. I think direction change is working as well but since I have no movement on the motor yet via the PWM I can't really say. I tapped pin 14 on the Gecko from the back side of the PP connector as a test and I get signal on it but no motor rotation yet. I'm still missing the magic sauce.

[lcvette]

Are you saying you're getting a 0-10v signal but no motor movement?

[lcvette]

Is there a jumper across the csk green screw terminals next to the analog spindle input green screw terminals?

[Kenny Duval]

Progress. The jumper is in place. Here's what I've done to this point. I took the ground terminal to the ground terminal of the power supply that feeds the Gecko. I have the start/stop on output1 of the Gecko and the Forward/Reverse on output 2 of the Gecko. I connected a 5v .5 amp power supply to the 0-10v in and disconnected pin 14 from the PWN input. At this point spindle start stop is working with M3 and M5 as well as reversal via M4. Spindle peed however currently is no modulated. I'm thinking I'll move the 5v supply to the Gecko and then feed Pin 8 from the Gecko and a ground back to the BLDC drive. That should give me speed control of the spindle.

I'm not sure what the system is expecting in terms of the PWM pin on the BLDC controller.