Z-20 Braking Motor

Machines (Elite Series) Motors
1

Hello All,
Before ordering my Onefinity I’m trying to understand the most common options to ensure I’m happy with my initial setup. I plan on using a PwnCNC spindle. What I’m not sure about is the Elite Z-20 Braking Closed Loop Stepper Motor.

  1. Is the breaking feature that useful, given the cost ($140)?
  2. Is it really not possible to order the braking motor as an upgrade at the time of CNC purchase so that one doesn’t end up with an extra stepper?

Thanks,
Eric

2
  1. The brake motor holds the heavy spindle from free fall crashing down and braking your bit when power is off.
  2. correct, it’s only sold as an add on.
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3

Thanks for the reply. (1) sounds like you consider it to be pretty useful. (2) are there any common uses for the spare stepper? My search was limited, but I didn’t find any rotary axis kits. I assume that the X and Y steppers don’t fail that often, so it is unlikely I’d need it to replace one of them.

4

Every one always reachs out for a spare XXX the day before their project is due, and shipping isn’t overnight. Always good to have a spare on hand.

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5

BUY THE MOTOR. they know this is an issue but want you to buy it and end up with a spare. Why they don’t put the braking motor on every machine is a mystery. The original motor will not hold up a PWN spindle. There really isn’t much difference in price vs a standard non brake servo so none of their position makes sense.

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6

The motor you take off is commonly used for a rotary or 4th axis, its convenient as it has the driver built into it.
Pat

7

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. It is a mystery to me as well why there isn’t a way to get the braking stepper without also getting the default stepper. Maybe it is an inventory control issue. Regardless, the few times I’ve reached out to Onefinity support they’ve been quick to respond and their response has been helpful, so I’ll give them the benefit of my doubt.

Pat your comment encouraged me to continue my search for examples of how one adds a rotary or 4th axis to a Onefinity. I’m not interested in designing and building my own from scratch. My search turned up the following topic on this forum: Elite Series Rotary Suggestion from Onefinity.

8

Yes, that is the one I made mine from, just swap out the motor.
Ugly Dog Workshop on YT has a good video on this subject.
pat

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9

Had an issue today with the Z braking motor. If I hit estop the Z motor drops 2 inches then when I do the reset it instantly pops back up in place. I rebooted the machine twice then it started working right again. This is the braking motor.

10

As of November 1st 2024 all Elite machines will come with the breaking motor on the Z-axis pre-installed at no additional cost!

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11

@Randyzon I have this exact issue multiple times. When I power on the system, the motor drops and an alarm goes off, when I hit the estop and reset it pops back up, but the alarm stays, if I hit the estop again to try and clear it, it drops and rinse and repeat powering the machine off fixes it. I have no idea what is going on.

12

I have this exact issue also. Onefinity has informed me it is a MASSO bug. its mostly just annoying. Power cycling the machine solves the issue. It always presents itself on power up, and after a clean power cycle, I have zero issues running my job. I installed the braking motor at the same time as updating to MASSO 5.0.7. I never had this issue before, so I’m not sure if it is due to the braking motor, the software update, or both… feels like something is not initializing correctly. I have not been able to find any pages or bug reports on the MASSO forum on this, but have not reached out to them. I am hoping this gets resolved in the 5.1 update. Ultimately though, it really is just an annoyance, as my machine runs jobs fine even with this bug. I ran a lot of jobs over the holiday season without any messed up in any way.

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