Thank you John, did you stopped in Curacao?

Upgraded Power Supply, small dust extractor installed, first time spoil-board surfaced and more important, first paid jobs :) It's a good start and I'm very proud of my machine.

Dust foot works very well is from: http://solsylva.com/cnc/vacuum.shtml

Dust separator also works 100%, from: http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

Congrats on the 1st paid job! Wishing you more to come!

If you are serious about real production, do keep a few spare buckets for your Thien. I have0 2 huge barrels, each will last 4~6 hours of wood chip/dust.

3kw spindle
 

Time for very welcome upgrade, from 800w router to 3kw chinese spindle :) Still busy mounting it. VFD is a Mitsubishi FR-D720-165-NA. I plan to use Modbus on Mach3.

Modbus is the way I did it. Was not to bad to set up. Plenty of examples here and at MachSupport forum.

I'm been busy outside of mechmate project... My new spindle is working very well, but using manual start, stop. Could not get any comms between VFD and my PC using the RS232/485 converter. Need more time testing and change different combinations of wires. Not sure about pinout at vfd or converter.

here is a video of my machine carving a maya calendar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwxNlgnH3s

That's cool. What material are you cutting? looks like foam.

Nice calendar Paulo, How long did it take to cut? I've been meaning to cut 36" one.

Tom, material is Moisture resistant MDF white faced, it hold details very well.

Armando, the size is 24", I leave my machine unattended and then I found it paused by itself (first time happen) I don't know how long it was paused but the cut took less than 2 Hours for sure and it could run it more fast.

Hi!
 

Hi Paolo! how much money you spend in this machine? I want to build one myself but i dont know how much money it cost.... ty for your time and congrats for that nice machine!:)

Thanks Boza. I can't tell you exactly the cost of my machine, I was collecting parts during 2 years and buying all my tools at same time (it was my first metal work) and never logged the expenses... As Sean indicated be prepared to expend 6 to 8 thousand USD, it depends on quality of the parts and shipping/taxes to get it imported. I was lucky enough to get most of the heavy and expensive parts from Mike, Metalhead: laser kit, motors, drives and controlbox with most of the components, all in very good quality. It saved me a lot in shipping.

Still no communication between VFD and computer using RS232 converter. I'll attach crops from user manual, maybe anyone can see something wrong with my connection?

I'm connecting:

RDA and SDA, together on D+/A(Tx+)
RDB and SDB, together on D-/B (Tx-)

I don't know which machine controller software you are using. This only pertains to Mach3.

I know Mach can be frustrating to make it talk to the VFD. Some VFD manufacturers, the setting has to be made and a required power down for the setting to accept. Once you have the correct settings in Mach and your VFD it works wonderful. But you will have a little stress as there is not a good manual to read to make it plug-n-play.

According to your images, what you have stated is correct. I had a little trouble with the distance of the computer to the VFD and had to get a shielded serial cable and mounted the 485 converter near the VFD. Now don't just jump and say that is my problem. Many people have these just plugged into the back of their computer and it works fine. Post a question on Machsupport and CNCZone also. There are more people there that are users of Mach3 and some will have the same frequency inverter you do. If anything, it is a larger knowledge base to pull information from.

I hope this is helpful to you.

I posted this screen as it is critical for right setup, this is if you use old serial modbus plugin from mach3

http://cnc.rs/mechmate/modbus_serial.png

check the parameters as stated from pages 183, 187 and 200 , speed parity stop bit etc.
also my vfd wont update parameters faster than 10Hz, something to do with line busy or whatever.
You can test line settings from Test ModBus button, bear in mind that if the parameters are values 1-xxx and registers start from 0-xxx sometimes.

Thank you very much Pete, I'll sort this out when I have some spare time. I did not try it with Mach, just want to communicate with FR-Configurator that is a tool from Mitsubishi, VFD Manufacturer, to setup the parameters of the Inverter. or, better yet, to buy a PCI RS-485 board.

Thank you Danilo, Just see your post now...

Maybe it's better to try communication from Mach, using test modbus...

These "speed, parity, stop bit" must match VFD and Software (Mach or FR-Configurator) and about rs-232 serial port on computer? also these settings needs to match or is not important?

During cuts my machine get paused without reason. I have a 5m parallel cable to have the computer on other side of the table. it was working very well with a router but since I changed to spindle it started. not a big deal as I only need to press a button to continue. Then, I put the computer next the controller and VFD with a small parallel cable but it got worst. I couldn't start the machine with spindle running, it said a "stop button is pressed"... Moved the computer to other side, again, with big cable for now.

I'm cutting small files, mainly art works for a gallery. Everyone is impressed with the art that comes out of my machine. Very happy, biggest success is the custom stippler portraits, I think it will pay my machine :)

still no signal of communication between VFD and computer through rs-232 adapter.

I wish a good holiday season for all community.

Try setting the Debounce in Options to something between 200-1000 it should solve the problem, I also don't hook up buttons directly to the Breakout board but trough the 24V relays its much more immune to the noise

thanks, I'll do it.

Paulo that's good to know you're doing well, merry christmas friend, wanted to help but I still have no experience, until you put in function the me to think that in the mid 2014's I'll have running, greetings friend and you go well. and thanks for the help you have given me.

Paulo que bueno saber que te va bien, feliz navidad amigo, quisiera ayudarte pero todavia no tengo experiencia, hasta que no ponga en funcion la mi a, creo que a mediados del 2014 la tendre funcionando, saludos amigo y que te vaya muy bien. y gracias por la ayuda que me has dado.

Hi all,

Just to say hello. With small problems to solve on my machine (noise), the true is that I did nothing to solve it :) but I'll do one of these days... I'm using the machine almost every day, turning on the VFD manually, and pause button disabled... Machine is going strong. Got a good deal on Enroute V5 CAM program, that's a good piece of software! These Rapid Textures are promising. A portrait almost out of the box:

Super nice job!
I run Aspire 4 and Easycab Pro kitchen,
looking forward to trying that out for myself.
Love the dustfoot custom pipe!
Cheers
Tim

...is that plumbing drain pipe as a dust pickup? Love it!

Hi Paulo. I like the portraits, what material are you using?
I have been trying to make some wooden books using maple faced plywood. Painted in back acrylic. Sanded then Danish oil. Must try some of your portraits. Nice work.
cheers Andrew

Here is a photo for the dust pipe I used, it's like cooper. Works very well for a small system like mine, with a ShopVac. You can turn it around, up and down without turn screws, just forcing, very handy.

Andrew, the material I use is MDF moisture resistant laminated in white. with a sharp toll it holds very fine details without chip. Feel free to PM me if you want more info. on portraits.

Testing Mechmate to cut glass: Approved.

http://youtu.be/yNYPgUQHsfY

Great !!
Thks for sharing ;)

Never would have thought...good going:)

Cool. What are you using for the scribe? How hard was it to break the curved glass free afterwards?

Nice work, how did you manage the gap caused by the cutter's offset ?

https://www.unitedmfrs.com/cart/detail.cfm?item=4864
You need to remove the lock pin.

after doing extra small cuts, by hand, dividing by 2 the wast material, it was very easy to break. for tool path used was engraving 0.03 mm and foam board as backing plate.

for that job, cutting ovals for picture frames I didn't take into account the offset. Dimensions are perfect only the zero is offset, I think...

Nice job! Thanks for sharing.
Now we have another trick up our sleeve :D

Today I spent some time looking to solve the noise problem: machine gets paused, randomly, during cuts, and E-Stop on mach3 getting activated when Spindle turns on or off or changing speed. All I needed to do was to ground the negative of the 12V power supply for PMDX-122 and Proximity switch to aluminium plate. All noise went away and machine is working as it should be. I don't know for sure if it is advisable but it solved my problem. I'm not using line reactors or EMI filter on VFD.

Wire is the yellow one on center of thr photo.

Wow Paulo, I just came in from the shop and I'm experiencing the same exact problem, been trying to solve it all day long. I had to change out a PMDX-126 and thats when trouble started. It fixed the dead z but then the spindle was kicking the breaker that the computer was on, changed parallel ports to fix that, but still have a jitter on one of the X steppers when the spindle goes on or off. Never had this problem before, maybe additional grounding is what I need.

If your 12V power supply was floating, that would definitely cause problems.
Having no ground reference is like trying to measure the height of something with one point. It takes two points to define a height.

Having a noisy ground for electrical circuits that depend on a voltage value is like trying the measure the height of a building during an earthquake. If the earth keeps jumping up and down, you can't get a good reading.

Hopefully the analogy makes sense.

yes, the 12V power supply was floating. When I was mounting the control box I remember that I wanted to keep the ground of the PMDX-122 isolated and I missed the power supply. Today when I opened the control box my eyes go direct to it and I saw the problem...

It can be the solution for Tom...

I must be missing something, I've looked everything over good and is grounded well. Just about everything has a common ground. ALL cable is shielded and the PS's are grounded to the control box then to earth ground, I have filters on each individual phase going out of the VFD and then another for the whole cable. I have a 24vdc ps that is not connected to anything but its grounded through the DIN bar.

I still think its the computer flipping out, I did take a lightning strike that took-out the power supply in it. I'm trying to use it but I think Its time for a new one.

Very unfortunate, Tom. It can be anything at the computer. If you have a temporary computer that you can use to run mach3 and then start to swap parts until you find the problem? It's is my approach when I'm at work in a casino with hundreds of slot machines... Good luck.

That's it, keep playing until you win. ;)

The computer would be a relatively easy one to try first. If that does not work, you might try looking at the filters you added. Maybe even remove them. They may have been damaged and are causing problems.

After you try that, you may want to summarize everything back on your thread before your troubleshooting notes get scattered around a bunch of other threads.