Relay to turn router on and off

Not at all - you’re the best power control, you will always know when to have it on or off. :+1:t2::100:

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Well, just think of all the rest of my challenges… God knows I don’t need to create extras!

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“If you need me to look at the wiring I can post something.”
Yes if you can post photo that would be great. Also where is a good place to buy the 3 pin wire already made with a female connector on both ends that is a t least a couple feet long?
Instead of paying $27 for the iot unit this should cost about $5 to make myself. I’ve used power relays before, but all the ones I’ve used required their own 12V power source.

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I got a crimper and kit of connectors/shells off eBay (Amazon has them too, if your country has one), think I paid around $20USD for both. They’re called Dupont connectors, don’t know why. You can crimp them with a pair of pliers but an actual crimper makes a better looking, more consistent, and more reliable connection - usually. I hate it when wires fall off. I needed them for one of those Arduino relay things, neighbor talked me into making a controller for his old traffic light and it’s a pain to solder to those pins, plus I didn’t really trust the relay to last and got a couple spares. The original worked for over 6 months of 24 hours a day switching 120V LED traffic light assemblies (no replaceable bulbs) before he gave it away to somebody left the area, but that was switching a few watt load.

Being a tool junkie I have a whole box of specialized crimpers, from different sized coax to RJ45 (plus RJ11 for phone wiring), powerpoles, wire ferrules (get the 4 sided instead of 6, clamps better in screw connectors), etc. We must love standards since there’s so many of them

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And that multi-connector flat gray cable is handy to have around. If you just need a few inches you can cut down an old PC cable and rip it to the number of wires you want. Like that floppy disk cable out of your parts box, probably won’t need too many of them again.


These 10a units are really inexpensive from china less than $1

Also found this one which is 15A, should be enough to run shop vac and router from it.

ebay also sells the premade 3 pin depont cables. also less than $1

I’d derate those, or any other eBay Chinese relay, by 50% or so. Not that any eBay claims are overstated.

Probably a good practice to not run any relay at it’s max rating, for longer life.

Mathias Wandel has a recent YouTube video of an SSR that let the magic smoke, and some flames, out on top of his water heater

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I’m going to use a palm router that is max 6.9amps, but will probabably run much slower so amps will be less. with an SSR, does it need a seperate circuit board? probabaly stupid question. all the mechanical ones I use have sound/light/ other sensors on a board, …or is it as simple as low voltage single wires on the input and high voltage leg on the output? I have only used mechanical relays in the past.


can someone verify these wires are hooked up correctly? Neither the green or red light on the relay board is lighting up, which I am assuming means the PCB is not getting power. All other relay boards I have used have at least one led on when wired correctly. The board does not control the router when used on my maslow either.

it looks right. I would verify the VCC and Ground pins on the TLE board, but considering that you have tried other boards, it sounds like this one might have a problem.

If you have a multi meter, you could check to make sure power is getting to the board, as well as to verify the pins on the TLE board.

Some other things to check:
if power is getting to the board, see if the relay is toggling using the multi meter to test continuity
verify that all of the components and the relay are properly soldered onto the board (visually and with multi meter if possible)
try using the multi meter or a coin cell battery to light the LEDs individually just to knock that off the list

I have a MultiM. but I"m not that great at using it
I thought I read in the past that the middle pin is not used and the VCC should be 5v. I will check that first

ok I think I figured this out. the TLE board and the relay I am using have the +&- in opposite places. I just clipped the wires and rearranged them. On TLE board middle is +5V just like the label says. on the relay the + is VCC.
Ground also needed to be switched

Excellent. I trust you have it working now.

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I’ve been searching everywhere and haven’t been able to find the “Spindle Automation” setting anywhere in ground control, I’m using v1.27 and have been going nuts.

The Kivy user interface can be pretty hard to navigate :neutral_face:
“Spindle Automation” is in GC on the Settings/Advanced page, about half way down the list. Click on the word ‘None’ to get a list of options.

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Okay, now I’m really nuts because I have never seen this screen before and can not seem to locate the “advanced settings” tab or option in the settings menu or anywhere from what I can tell.

Edit: Nevermind! Wow…like, wow haha. Found it after 5 days.

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:grin::+1:t2:

There aren’t any more secret hiding spots, though. You’re found them all.

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Does Carbide Create generate gcode to turn the router on and off? Or does any other program.

Will this work to turn on and off the router.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BDKCH7Z/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=AFW951J7877QL&psc=1]

Thanks

-Tim

Gcode header/footer can be added to the beginning and end of your gcode file.

M03 or M04 will turn on the spindle/router
M05 will turn it off

The link you provided will work to switch the router power. You have to tie the relay to a specific pin on the shield.

There are several posts on the forum about how to do this:
first one of the list

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Possibly, depending on the inrush current of your router/spindle. 10A seems ok but it will be marginal. The standard Rigid router is rated at 11A, continuous but will only draw that when its strating up or under a load. The last time I measured the current draw for mine it was pulling about 6-8 while it was in a cut. If you are using a smaller router than the current draw should be less.

The board you linked to looks like an electro/mechanical relay. Try to find a solid state one. They typicaly have lower activation current requirements. I’ve been using these and had really good luck:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/panasonic-electric-works/AQA221VL/2364683

I use one one for the router/spindle, and use one for the vacuum. I paralelled the spindle on output command from the controller to each relay so that both the router/spindle AND Vacuum start at the same time.