I’m getting an Alarm 14 when trying to begin a cut on my 2x4 AltMill. I recently received my AltMill and Sienci ER20 spindle and just completed setting it up three weeks ago. I successful began to surface my wasteboard and was able to complete 3 runs using the gSender built in wasteboard tool. I was ready to begin my 4th run and when I hit the start button, I received an Alarm 14. The spindle did not attempt to start and there was no moment.
I went through all steps in the Alarm 14 Troubleshooting guide along with reloading gSender, running the spindle setup gcode …
I noticed that the I am only getting a flashing green light on the SLB Control Board and not the alternating white/green lights that I should see according to the trouble shooting guide. Per the Troubleshooting guide I verified the RS 485 connection SLB to VFD. I verified that the H-100 is set in the firmware. I can run the spindle manually from the VFD.
I provided this info to Sienci Labs and they sent me a replacement SLB Controller. I installed this today, but I continue to see the same issue. I’ll reach out to Sienci on Monday but thought I would see if someone on the forum may have ideas for me to try before that. Keep in mind, everything worked fine for my first three surfacing cuts, and I made no changes other than zeroing the Z for the 4th try.
@Rob.Wood Dis you try changing the delay in gSender. I forget the name of the setting but it has to do with the amount of time you give the spindle to get to speed.
I had a similar issue with the alarm being Spindle speed timeout. A new SLB was sent out and it fixed the issue. You should see a green and RED led flashing not a green and white. Atleast as far as I know.
To get up and running while you trouble shoot you can select just the ALtmill and no spindle in settings and set your spindle speed manually for each cut.
@Rob.Wood Have you inspected the cable? Perhaps checking continuity between corresponding pins on both ends? There have been reports of bad soldered joints inside the connectors. Not a lot and not necessarily for that cable, but it can happen.
I tried that, I replaced the cable with my own wires (per the troubleshooting guide) and also checked the continuity of the original cable with my multimeter. (I know, overkill.) Based on the issue I’m having, it seemed like a cable issue was a high probability but it was fine. The fact everything worked for 3 runs before this and I didn’t change anything for the 4th run, makes me think it is a hardware failure somewhere.
@Rob.Wood Quite possibly a hardware failure elsewhere. On the Facebook site, one user reported an issue with the RS 485 chip on the SLB. Not sure if that was his or Sienci’s diagnosis. Since you had the SLB replaced already, you’d be really unlucky if that was again the problem.
But there does seem to be an uptick in error 14 being reported.
I am trying to get my ALTMILL up and running. I surfaced my spoil board, completed tramming the spindle, and completed a second surfacing of the spoil board. Once the surfacing was done the Spindle would not shutoff. I had to push the Stop button on the VFD to shutoff the spindle.
I cannot start the spindle now and am getting the Alarm 14. TheSLB has the bottom light flashing and the top light is a solid Red light. I have reached out to Sienci Labs for help but have not received any response from them about this issue. I am having basicly the same alarm issue. Anymore suggestions on how to clear this issue?
@HavingFunCNCing I dunno. The fact that the spindle kept on running might indicate a comms issue between the SLB and the VFD. Might be worthwhile to give them a call in addition to your ticket via the web site.
If you’ve gone through the Alarm 14 troubleshooting guide and checked continuity in the cable, I’m not sure what else you can do. You power cycled everything after this incident, including the VFD?
I sent a note to Sienci for help with my issue and it took a couple of days but they are working with me to get it fixed. I don’t have a resolution yet, but I’ll post what happens once I have a fix.
I made one of the posts on FB about my issue. It was both my diagnosis and then Sienci confirmed that it was the RS485 comms after hard wiring into the RS485 on the SLB.
To be clear, I had my machine up and running initially and actually cut 2 files. I remember stopping the machine with either the E-stop but I think it was the HALT button (maybe #3 on the EStop) after this I could not get the machine up and it was a constant alarm 4. So my board was functioning properly when it left the factory. I have also tested this board by pressing all the halt and pause buttons just to be sure.
Hopefully they are nailing down the issue with this.
@WTXCNC If you’ve gone through the troubleshooting guide and have tried all the suggestions in this post and the several others on the same topic, it might be best to create a ticket with Sienci. This is a user forum and other than the “gSender bugs” section, I’m unsure if Sienci monitors the forum to provide support.
You can create a ticket via the “Contact us” link on their main site
The only workaround I know is to start the spindle manuely and run it that way. I have a ticket in with Sienci but don’t have a solution yet. They did provide a new controller that did not solve the issue, possible that the second controller is faulty but seems unlikely. I’ll post here when the issue is resolved. I agree with Chucky_ott, contact Sienci and let them help, maybe you will discover the issue before I do and share the fix.