Mitigating shop power interruptions

MR-1
1

I must be doing the slowest build ever of the MR-1. I got my machine delivered before Christmas last year (2022) and still have not poured the concrete. I may blame the wonderful ideas some of you have suggested for alterations. Tool boxes, a pallet jack platform, fish tank heaters for the coolant, spray hoses, and looks like I am back to re-doing my drains after todays reading. lol.

Ok so my reason for this post is power issues out in my rural Nebraska area. They are not quite like the rolling blackouts of California just yet but plenty bad enough to reset the clock on the microwave in the house 3-5 times a week and be out a couple of hours at a time at least once a month.

So as part of my base RE-design I incorporated TWO 1500VA uninterruptable power supplies. One to be dedicated to the control box and another to the mini PC and the display. OK that is all fine and dandy but what to about the spindle? How robust is the software to pause cutting operations if the spindle power hiccups while in a cutting operation? Can things be safely resumed most of the time?

thank you for any input ahead of time!
-Launchpad

2

Just a thought, but it may not be the best idea to have UPS’s on the control / PC, but not on the spindle. Ideally if you lose power you want the machine to stop without damaging the equipment, even if the part is scrap. Worst case scenario might be if the spindle stops but the steppers rapid a large tool into the stock. Im not sure if the MR-1 is fast enough to seriously damage the spindle bearings in this scenario - definitely a risk on a larger machine.

I’d personally rather view the stock as “disposable” and do everything to make sure the spindle is the last thing to turn off during a power loss. Then, worst case scenario is that you restart from a given line (assuming that’s possible).

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3

Good input. And this will definitely happen.

4

Perhaps a relay tied to the e-stop? That could stop motion on power loss before the spindle winds down much at all.

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