chinese atc spindle ?

[voyager1972]

after 2 years of sitting in a box i finally mounted the 6kw hqd atc spindle which i have connected to the vfd and is running smooth , at present i plan to use the manual toolchange button until i get my head around the auto toolchange and macro side of things.. i am using the uc300eth-5lpt with the ucbb with uccnc , i understand how to get the solenoid working with the button , my question is does this have to be connected through the breakout board ? and is there safety measures i need to put in place in case of a tool ejection when the spindle is in use , any advice would be much appreciated. thanks

[voyager1972]

thanks for the reply and advice,,,,,,what controllers/breakout boards would you recomend for an atc spindle setup,,,,,the controller in the machine is a chinese MKX -IV,,,,,,

[JAZZCNC]

thanks for the reply and advice,,,,,,what controllers/breakout boards would you recomend for an atc spindle setup,,,,,the controller in the machine is a chinese MKX -IV,,,,,,

The UC300ETH with UB1 breakout board is a good combination and will work with both Mach3/4 and UCCNC. This will give you enough I/O to do whatever you like.

The CSlabs controllers are very good but expensive for the higher end models which have enough I/O. They work with Mach3/4 and they also have there own software which is still in development and needs to grow before I'd use it.
The machine I'm fitting this spindle to is using Cslabs IP-S model controller.

There are several others I could mention that will easily do what you need with only differences when working being mostly visual but to explain the differences and which I think is better than the other and why would take a very long post so I won't go there.

The main requirement is you pick one with enough I/O to allow ATC. However, whichever controller you go with you'll still need to write a custom M6 tool-change macro that suits the configuration of your machine or modify an existing one because each machine is slightly different.

[Voicecoil]

BTW, a few weeks ago when I was searching CNCDrive's website for some help I found a page full of plugins/macros - some from themselves, some from 3rd parties; might be worth a look to see if there's any tool change stuff there. Sadly I didn't bookmark it If you can't find it email Balazs at CNCDrive, he's pretty good at responding.

[voyager1972]

Waiting on the uc300 eth motion controller and ucbb breakout Broad to be delivered for a uccnc upgrade,,, it also came with a uccnc licence,,,,,,,got an option for a new Hiteco hsk 63f spindle,,,,,,anyone using this type?

[JAZZCNC]

HSK63 is bit on the large side for a router but it will certainly do the job, thou tool holders are expensive compared to say BT40. For instance, I just looked on Cutwel site and HSK60F ER32 collet holder is £102. BT40 ER32 is £17.30.!

HSK is much stiffer but to be honest it will be wasted on a Chinese router so unless it's same or not much more money, then because of the much more expensive tool holder then I'd probably give it a miss because 10 tools, which sounds a lot but for ATC it's not, will cost £1K+ compared to £200 or less. BIG Difference.

[dad33326]

Hi Jazz,,
I live in the US and I purchased a similar Chinese 4.5KW BT 30 ATC spindle.
I built my own CNC and after having several successes in manufacturing parts (For about two years now) I have decided to add an ATC to my machine.
The problem that I’m having is that I can hardly find any help on how to connect this item.
It cost about $2000 and I don’t want to short it or break it since there is no warranty for noobs like me.
I am not a professional CNCer and everything I’ve learned about it have been on YouTube from people like yourself. It is a hobby that I truly enjoy and hopefully I could someday earn a little bit of money from it, however for now, it is only a hobby.
Could it be possible that you can help me with my questions?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely José Ricardo

[JAZZCNC]

Hi Jazz,,
I live in the US and I purchased a similar Chinese 4.5KW BT 30 ATC spindle.
I built my own CNC and after having several successes in manufacturing parts (For about two years now) I have decided to add an ATC to my machine.
The problem that I’m having is that I can hardly find any help on how to connect this item.
It cost about $2000 and I don’t want to short it or break it since there is no warranty for noobs like me.
I am not a professional CNCer and everything I’ve learned about it have been on YouTube from people like yourself. It is a hobby that I truly enjoy and hopefully I could someday earn a little bit of money from it, however for now, it is only a hobby.
Could it be possible that you can help me with my questions?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely José Ricardo

Hi Jose,

Yes if I can help then I will, fire away with your questions.

[dad33326]

ATC Questions
Hi Jazz,
Thank you for your time.
My my questions revolve around The electrical connections and the pneumatic connections.

Power supply, Thermal, Fan

The manual says:

9 pin plug
1. Thermal: 1, 5. What wire do I connect here? From where?
2. Fan: 3 Black,9 Red. What wire do I connect here? From where?
3. Power supply: 4 Red U,6 Black V,8 Blue W. GOT IT VFD.
4. Ground: 2 Yellow,Green. GOT IT from VFD.


Proximity switch
Switch button
11 Pin Plug

Hanging knife: 1 5 Red
Unloading knife: 2 11 Red
0V: 6 Blue 7 Blue
24V: Brown 8 Blue

5. What is hanging knife: 1? What do I connect here? From where?
6. What is unloading knife:2? What do I connect here? From where?
7. 0V: 6 Blue. What do I connect here? From where?
8. 24V: Brown What do I connect here? From where?
Do I get the 24V from outside source?
Which Pin is this? What does it do?

Switch button (it’s a little red button with two wires NC (I can only assume is to engage solenoid solenoid to drop the tool) What does it do?
9. 5 Red. What do I connect here?
10. 11 Red. What do I connect here?
11. 7 Blue. What do I connect here?
8 Blue. What do I connect here?

I contacted the company that sold me the spindle but you know, Chinese. They just basically told me to find my own engineer.
In reference to the pneumatics, I have one 1/4” connection and two 4mm connections. I’m not sure where these go.

Again, thanks a lot For any help you can provide on this.
Jose Ricardo

[Clive S]

Can you upload the manual and some pictures.

As the crystal ball is a bit misty.