Hey Chris,
If I want to share something here, and I don’t want or can’t upload it here, I upload it to my personal webspace, e.g. like this html page that I created.
Works also with videos, and images, and everything. Did you never try this?
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I am not an expert - just trying to help avoid a costly error. I have been active on the Masso forum for over two years now, and have read a lot of posts re circuits/wiring and related precautions.
I know this is unsolicited advice, but I strongly encourage you to share your solution on the Masso forum and ask the experts there for their guidance.
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Hey Chris,
usually stepper motor brakes are not wired to the emergency stop circuit. Just think a moment of when do you want to brake to act? Not when you press estop, but in fact you want it to act in all cases where the stepper looses its electromagnetic detent (and your Z axis including spindle moves downwards with gravity). This is the case not only when you press estop but also when a) power to the entire machine fails b) when the stepper driver enters a fault condition c) tell me if you find c), i’m already tired, 1:28 in CET 
Usually a stepper motor brake is wired to the stepper motor driver which takes care of that (which is logical as it’s the one that knows whether the stepper motor fails or not). On my CNC supplier if I enter “brake”, I find stepper motor drivers that have an output pin for a brake. So if you want to retrofit a brake, and you have a stepper motor with integrated driver (as on Elite Series), I would first procure me the datasheet of the driver and look if it hasn’t an output for controlling the brake.
If it has not, then you need a way to find out if your stepper motor gets no driving or idle current anymore.
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Hey Tom,
yes, I found that here
how do the people on the Masso forum wire a stepper motor brake? What condition(s) need(s) to be fulfilled that the power to the brake is cut (in which case it would lock and hold the Z axis)?
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Wow. That was a lot of words and i know some of them.
Masso says don’t wire the brake to your estop as that will break the functionality… or something to that nature.
Wiring it to my z motor is interesting (and reduction of alot of unnecessary wiring), but i don’t think it’ll work. For starters the motor is 36v, and secondary hitting the estop puts it in alarmed (neutral) state as confirmed by pushing the estop and looking at the lights not a power off state like it would need to be if hooking into that.
I did about 3 min of searching on the masso forum for what @TMToronto was speaking of, but my keywords were off and i didn’t see anything relevant. Search continues though.
I just sent an inquiry to masso about what the subjective term “very low current” meant because i think 6.5w is low to very low (led A15 bulbs are like that much)
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Masso says buy their relay and it’s cool… well after shipping price is getting up there. I would rather buy a power source with a terminal plug for $15 until i can justify the shipping with an a bigger order
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Hey Chris,
I did not mean to power it this way. I meant to trigger it with the pin (or sometimes a relay) that is found on the stepper driver that is made for triggering brakes.
That does not mean wiring it to estop. That means wiring it to the CNC contoller’s fault state (via a relay).
And what is if the stepper driver gets into fault state, but the CNC controller not?
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PS: doesn’t the Elite’s Masso G3 Touch already contain the relay?
There’s a PCB for the laser/tool setter/probe connection, but i haven’t seen a relay.
I’m more of a software tinkerer and am expanding my horizons by branching out to hardware.
@TMToronto had brought up concerns with wiring it to the g3 directly… it works, now… but i wonder if intercepting with a T-Splice from the power source before it gets to the g3 controller would work.
It’s already independent of motor status so i wouldn’t lose anything.
Hey Chris,
I know if you retrofit a separate brake to your Z stepper the situation is different than if your buy a Z stepper that already has the brake attached. But many stepper drivers I see offer control of triggering a brake. That’s why I would first procure me your stepper’s complete datasheet and see if it offers a brake control.
For the Z stepper motor I plan to use for my machine, the stepper driver has the following in its datasheet:
Brake is fixed at:
- Alarm Signal active
- Enable Signal inactive
- Error in the power connection of the motor
- Error in the power connection of the brake
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Hey Chris,
I found Tom’s reference in the Masso docs as easily (it’s here). If Masso says it’s a solution to control the brake via the ES pin through their relay, I would simply buy it.
If I planned to retrofit a separate brake to a stepper motor I would need a relay too.
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Hey Chris,
to make this line of thought complete:
Couldn’t find a detailed datasheet for the Elite Masso stepper. At first sight, you have ALARM and ENABLE on the rightmost pins:
So if you wanted to implement a brake control following this policy:
…it would be possible to design a small logic that checks these four conditions and that finally controls a relay that powers the brake with the needed voltage and current.
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I saw the estop page, even cited it Here…
He was saying don’t use the power and ground terminals on board (like i currently have), and i was saying Here it says “very low current” which is what im trying to figure out. It’s an unquantitative term, and while I’m sure it’s all encompassing, I’m talking about 6.5w which is either low or very low depending on who you ask.
- Peter from masso just responded and said 5-15mA, so obviously this is above that as is .68A.
I’m not ready to buy the relay because shipping is too crazy, and I’ll buy a wall adapter first with terminal leads and keep my manual switch until i can justify $50+ for shipping.
What I’m thinking though is if you intercept the power source as seen Here… can i not just bypass the relay and intercept it to the brake?
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This is as close as you’ll get
Hey Chris,
you could substitute the Masso relay module with a self-made relay module (you obviously only need one relay, not that many) if you know an electronic technician. Such a relay module is by far not rocket science
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Hey Chris,
thank you for the link! Didn’t know who manufactured them.
But no hit for “brake” in the PDF.
the thing with the very low current means, unlike the GND and PWR that have power from the power supply, the many GROUND and POWER pins all around on the controller are control outputs like the other control pins. To trigger something from these pins, you need an optocoupler or a small transistor, if you want to drive something with them, e.g. a relay.
how do you exactly mean this? Masso says you should use the ES pin. Do you mean something else to trigger the brake?
To drive a relay that switches the brake power, you need a relay and the small circuitry found in the relay module, which is not rocket science. Usually it’s an optocoupler or a small driver transistor that drive the relay control coil, and a flyback diode.
Sorry for tapping out - am currently configuring my new tool holder and tools with the Masso - and walking the dog.
Check out RoverCNC and CNC4PC for the Masso relay in NA, with the former being slightly less expensive at $69US. I imagine either will be better re shipping cost. I am in Canada, so buy through Rover.
Yeah, Im getting ready to pull the trigger at cnc4pc… its ~20 cheaper than getting it from australia, and I’ll probably get it wednesday or thursday i think.
At least with this i’ll be able to use the estop button and it’ll activate… ??? right??? thats how I understand it at least.
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