How to fix this? Ess: spindle pwm is not enbabled or assigend. the spindle pwm will not work

Good day.

Upon starting my machine today it tells me mach 4 was not shut down properly and I did setup the configuration again…homes and moves great but…
I have this message Ess: spindle pwm is not enbabled or assigend. the spindle pwm will not work

How can I fix this? cannot do anything in the moment.

Thank you!

Not sure, haven’t had that message about the spindle pwm. Did you reinstall or update Mach lately? I had power go out while sitting idle (not cutting) and it messed up my profile I guess. I got a similar message with the not shut down properly warning. I was sent instructions to reset the profile to a backup and that solved my issue. Mach4 Users Guide - CNC Software

I was told if that didn’t fix it then the next section down will reinstall, but I didn’t need to.

I did reset profile but it is the same…I did not want to reinstall but If that what’s needed to be done…This Mach4 is killing me…sometimes it crashes the z while homing…jog left it goes left…jog right it goes left :rofl:

I hear ya. Someone else had the jog issue you mentioned, if I can find their post…

There it is, Troubleshooting
https://www.avidcnc.com/support/troubleshooting/proCnc/xAndYAxes/#axis-only-moves-in-one-direction-regardless-of-jog

Generally this is going to be the Machine.ini file getting corrupted. It can happen if the machine gets hung up for some reason, doesn’t close right, and sometimes just out of the blue.

The file is located here: C:\Mach4Hobby\Profiles\AvidCNC

The good thing is that Mach4 saves this file every time you make a config change or it shuts down. The backups are stored inhte Backups directory.

Close Mach4, and just go look at the backups file dates and pick the file that is the newest one were you know the machine was working correctly, and copy it into the directory above and rename to Machine.ini (i.e. you are replaceing the current Machine.ini with a slightly older but not corupted version).

The re-start Mach4 and see if it is working correctly.

Jim

Replacing the ini file did not work.

Reinstalling Mach4 did the trick.

Thanks to all!

1 Like

Detach power cable on both ends and the one on the spindle. make sure the cable is fully seated and tight. I know, stupid fix. Like M$soft, fix to most any problem is reboot.

Just for posterity, I thought I’d add a fix to this thread. No need to re-install or replace ini files.

In Mach4:

Disable the machine (or the configuration options will be greyed out and inaccessible).

Optional: Clear the error log so you can see if you’ve fixed the problem:
At the bottom of the Mach4 screen, there is a history button, and then the box that shows the current error (my screenshot has “The ESS is not responding”, but you will see the spindle PWM error here).
Click the history button and a box with the most recent errors will pop up. Hit CLEAR and then CLOSE.

Go to Configure → plugins → ESS Warp9 wotsit

Optional - Go to the SPINDLE tab - it should look a bit like this, and down in note 3 is a hint at where to find the PWM setting.

Go to the OUTPUT SIGNALS tab
Scroll down to find the SPINDLE MOTOR PWM line.
Click the little red :x: to change it to a little green tick
In the PIN MAPPING column on the same line, click the dropdown box and select the pin that has SPINDLE PWN

Click OK

Enable and test - fire up the spindle and try a few different speeds

Mach4 Spindle control