But it’s a 1 1/4 hp motor. I know that different kinds of motors have different current demands on starting so that was why I was asking whether the motor in the Makita was of such a kind that the switch’s restriction to 1/2 hp was material. Most motors are rated at running or continuous power, not the startup power. That was a factor in sizing the generator for my house - refrigerator, forced air heating blowers and well pump motors for instance draw a substantially higher load on starting than when running.
I like the magnetic switches due to your original point that they won’t allow the motor to restart once the power to the circuit is restored. You have to physically switch it off/on. Just not gonna do me any good if the power draw on the router at start is going to toast the switch.
I am considering the addition of an external E-stop also because the controller is mounted under OF’s rolling stand. I would use the E-stop terminal in the breakout concoction on the back of the controller but this is used to control my VFD. Now the option to kill the main power via an E-stop kill switch seems to be the obvious solution. My concern is OF highly recommends not killing the power without a software shutdown as the Raspberry pi may loose its mind. I guess by definition “Emergency” means hit the red button. Now that being said if the PI lost it mind, I have it backed up through the OF screen but if its functions aren’t working how could it be restored Hmmmmm. Sorry rambling.
Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
24
Hey Richard,
usually you control the VFD over the ModBus serial port on pins 13 and 14, so pin 23 ‘estop’ should still be free. Or do you want to say that you have used ‘estop’ pin 23 for something in conjunction with the VFD?
Yes, that indeed is not recommended, but Onefinity contradicts itself with the fact that the big red Emergency Stop button on top of the case is wired to simply cut the power to the controller at the internal power supply, as Onefinity stated here. In contrast to what you would assume, especially when knowing the Buildbotics Controller of which the Onefinity Controller is a fork of, on the Onefinity Controller the big red button it is not connected to “estop” (pin 23) functionality of the Mainboard. But of course you can wire it that way. Then after hitting the red button you would retain a running Raspberry Pi with the CNC Controller Application in “estopped” mode, i.e. with spindle stopped.
Thank you for your input. Yes I do control the VFD via modbus pins 13 and 14. this works very well especially with a 5 second delay to come up to speed before continuing, I believe the answer is using the pin 23 as a soft E-stop. I am working on a solution as my controller is mounted under the spoil board (on a rolling stand) and the cable from the 25 pin DB connector to my VFD is disconnected from the controller every time I stow the machine. I would like the new input to the pin 23 (e-stop) mounted on top of the spoil board with easy access. I am thinking the input to pin 23 will have to be a pig tail at the 25 pin connector and a quick disconnect to the E-stop. Again thank you for your input.