Quiet Cut Spindle Upgrade & TinyG

Temporarily mount the Quiet Cut Spindle in the Shapeoko. Measure the 2-conductor wire needed to extend motor wires to where the 48VDC power supply and speed controller will be located. Measure twice, cut once. Extend motor wires by soldering on new wires and covering with heatshrink tubing or by using crimp connectors. Soldering and heat shrink is the preferred method.

NOTE: check the input voltage on Power Supply. The default setting is 220V. Use a small screwdriver to slide the switch if needed. Wire a grounded power cord from Inventables. I stripped the wires to expose the ends and connected them to the power supply. They come with one end stripped as well to skip that step. They are color coded. For 110V in the USA green is earth, white is neutral and black is load. You can use a power strip for both power supplies so you can power the gShield and the spindle all at once.

Use some more of the 2-conductor wire hook up the 48VDC output from the power supply to the input side of the speed controller. Note the speed controller can accept both AC and DC power so polarity does not matter on the input side of the speed controller.

Wire the spindle directly to the speed controller. Make sure to match the polarity. Red is positive, black is negative.

Because we are using the speed controller with software via PWM we need to change the jumper position to disable the potentiometer and enable PWM. Move the jumper closest to the PWM terminal to do this. Also remove the potentiometer as it will not be needed, but save it if you want to use it later on a different build.

Use two wires to connect the PWM controls to the speed controller. The terminal labeled PDM on the TinyG is the positive wire (shown in yellow below). The ground terminal is on the same terminal block.

Power the TinyG with 24VDC. Make sure polarity is correct. There is a terminal on the TinyG just for power.

- Click the Re-Scan button (upper right) to find what USB port is available
- Click Connect Button
- Click on the Axis tab (upper left)
- Confirm default settings on Velocity Maximum (circled below in photo), it should read 600

- Click on Machine Settings tab (upper left)
- Highlight Shapeoko config (right column)
- Click Load button (bottom right)
- Wait for the settings to load and then power cycle the board (re-boot)

- Reconnect to TinyG
- Click on the Axis tab (upper left)
- Confirm default settings on Velocity Maximum (circled below in photo), it should read 1600

- Click the Gcode tab (upper left)
- Enter PWM settings line by line in command line prompt on bottom of screen
- Confirm settings after each line, they will be echoed above

Here are the PWM settings to apply listed below (or used attached file to project) . Enter them one line at a time and hit return.

Secure the spindle securely in the Shapeoko. Also remove the bit if you have one installed and make sure the collet is secure. Put on your eye protection. Type M03 (with a zero not an O) in the command line to turn on the spindle. M05 should stop the spindle. Type S2000 for a slow speed or S8000 for the maximum speed of the spindle.

Note: the CAM program you are using is probably putting M3 or M5 in already near the beginning and end of the gcode. If not, it is usually an option somewhere or in the post processor. Also M3 and M03 are usually interpreted the same by the machine controller, so either will work. Same for M5 and M05. Please open up your G-code in a text editor or tgFX and preview before running your job.