Bart Dring Adds RS485 VFD Spindle Support to Grbl_ESP32, Shows Off Four-Axis Control Board
Offering four-axis control of VFD spindles via RS485, Dring's latest ESP32 CNC controller board will be heading to Tindie soon.
Two years ago noted maker Bart Dring launched Grbl_ESP32, a highly successful effort to port the Grbl computer numeric control (CNC) controller firmware to Espressif's low-cost Wi-Fi-enabled ESP32 microcontroller family — and has now added support for variable frequency drive (VFD) spindle control over RS485.
"Added RS485 VFD Spindle support to Grbl_ESP32," Dring announced via Twitter this weekend. "Here is a close up shot of the controller being used to test the Grbl_ESP32 RS485 (Modbus) VFD spindle feature. The controller also does 0-10V and 5V PWM spindle control.
"The spindle shown is an air cooled 0.8kw that costs about $120. A Huangyang VFD to run it costs about $125. 24000 RPM and very quiet."
Dring's Grbl_ESP32 port was already a popular choice for those building or upgrading CNC machines, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of a remote user interface accessible via Wi-Fi and a fourfold increase in step rate compared to running the original Grbl firmware on an Arduino Uno board. The addition of support for low-cost VFD spindle control, meanwhile, will only increase its popularity.
The spindle upgrade is live for early testers now on the hy_vfd_spindle branch of the Grbl_ESP32 GitHub repsitory; the controller board, meanwhile, will be available on Tindie as soon as possible - though Dring warns that "these days nothing is soon."
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