Hi All,
I’m in the first stages of getting the spindle working, but it will not spin when asked to even though I can hear it gearing up (spinning inside the spindle). It only starts to rotate if I give it a push. I have gone through all of the trouble shooting suggestions I could find…loaded and reloaded the SLB-EXT configuration code…turned on and off the machine in the sequence described multiple times. Checked the voltage at the receptacle at 237.6V. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like one of the three phases is missing. You indicate you checked the voltage at the receptacle - is that the 240 volt supply receptacle? If so, that sounds good. Have you checked the voltage at the connector on the spindle? Should be voltage between A & B, B & C, C & A. If one is missing the motor probably will not start. At least that is my understanding of a three phase motor.
Make sure you are using shielded cable. The lack of a good earth on the shield cable can make it sound like its spinning when its not. Its quite bizarre.
I have the same issue. They had me test the continuity on the spindle pins and on the wiring on the VFD. It turns out thet the VFD Test indicates I have a bad cable from the spindle to the VFD. Mine sounds like it running, sounds different when I increas or decrease rpms. This happened in the middle of surfacing my spoilboard for the first time. It overheated and stopped. I let it cool down overnight and the next morning, it wouldn’t spin. Not frozen. That’s when they said to do the continuity tests. Turns out there are others that have this issue. I’m on my second controller, Y1 cable, and now VFD/Spindle cable and Y2 motor makes sounds after moving on XY axis
Thanks to all for responding to this thread. Yes, after troubleshooting with the folks at Scienci Labs yesterday, a continuity test revealed the spindle was ok but the spindle power cable pin 2 failed and they have sent me a new one. Fingers crossed there are no other issues!
Did they explain why it sounds like the spindle is spinning even though it isn’t? I wonder if the cooling fan works on 120v and spins independently of the shaft?
While they didn’t explain, my guess is that there was power present to get the fan working, but there wasn’t enough initial power to get the spindle moving, but if I gave it a push at the very start, the spindle started and worked fine. I had no problem completing the break-in…provided I gave it an initial push to get started.
@ChrisC I wonder if a 220V motor will still run on 120V but at half the power, hence why you needed the push to get it going. So it might have worked without any load but may not have worked well (if at all) if you were actually cutting. Just a guess though.
In a 3 phase motor if the motor is turning and it drops a phase, the motor will continue to spin but with reduced torque and increased current draw. If stationary, and your missing a phase, the motor will not start because there is no 3rd phase to establish the rotating magnetic field and again, it will have significantly less torque and increased current draw. I’m really surprised the VFD did not fault with an overcurrent error.