Installation & wiring

WARNING: Electric shock. Hardwired mains, a contactor and a machine’s control circuit carry live voltage. Contact can kill or cause serious burns. Have a licensed electrician do this work to your local code, with the machine switched off and locked out before any cover or panel is opened. A plug-through install needs no wiring.

Access control, not a safety device. The controller decides who may start a machine. It is not an emergency stop, a safety interlock or a disconnect, and switching it off is not lockout/tagout. The machine’s own e-stop, guarding and disconnect stay in place and in use. See Access, not safety.

This page describes what the controller expects. It does not tell you how to wire your building.

Pick an install method

There are three ways to connect the controller to a machine. The deciding question is how much current the machine draws.

	Plug-through	Interlock	External contactor
Typical machines	Benchtop and mid-size equipment within the relay rating	Machines with an interlock or enable input you’d rather not cut power to directly	Large equipment above the relay rating
Machine power goes through the controller?	Yes	No	No
Limit	15 A continuous at 120 or 240 V	Set by the machine’s own circuit	Set by the contactor you choose
Who installs it	Anyone	Licensed electrician	Licensed electrician

Plug-through

The machine’s power cord plugs into the controller, and the controller plugs into the wall. Inside, two relays opened and closed together switch both line and neutral, rated for 15 A continuous with each pole fused. It handles 120/240 V split-phase. If the machine is within the ratings in the table above, installation means plugging it in.

Optional: the switch-left-on check. On a plug-through install the controller can refuse to power a machine whose own switch was left on. To set it up, train the machine’s no-load current once:

1. Turn the machine’s switch on, with nothing cutting.
2. On the controller, open the admin menu, unlock it, and choose TRAIN NO-LOAD. Press GREEN. Power runs for about 3 seconds.
3. Press GREEN to save, then turn the machine’s switch off.
4. On the website, open the controller’s settings and turn on Cut power if the machine’s switch was left on.

Interlock

The machine keeps its own power feed. One of the controller’s two dry-contact signal relays is wired into the machine’s interlock or enable input (the controller setting is Interlock / enable input). The contact closes when a session starts and opens when it ends, so the machine only runs during a session.

The machine’s e-stop must stop the machine on its own, whether or not the controller is powered or connected. Wire the contact into an e-stop circuit only if a qualified person has assessed the risk for that machine and the e-stop still works independently of the controller.

External contactor

For machines beyond the plug-through rating, an electrician installs a contactor sized for the load. The controller switches the contactor’s coil, either with its AC coil output or through a signal relay, and never carries the machine’s current.

Placement

Mount the controller where the person at the machine can see the display and reach the buttons. At the start of most sessions they scan the QR code on the screen and press GREEN.

Keep it out of chip streams and coolant spray, and off the machine’s own vibration where you can. The membrane panel is IP54 , which means dust-protected and splash-resistant. It is not waterproof.

Wi-Fi matters more here than it does for a phone. An offline controller can’t start sessions from a QR scan, and it cuts sessions that have no end time. After mounting, open the admin menu’s SIGNAL METER page (see The admin menu) and check the signal at the final position. You don’t need an admin unlock for this page. Dead spots are usually inside enclosures and behind cast-iron machines.

First power-on

A new controller starts in SETUP MODE and waits to be configured from the MakerOps mobile app. Next: Connecting to Wi-Fi.