...Chris is trying to break my record build time :)

Chris your output on the rectifier is fine. please read the link I posted above- you are seeing 30 VDC @120hz

you said: When I rectify, I'm only getting 30VDC out of a 30vAC source. I should be getting 42.5vdc. Pulling my hair out!
Chris
Richards said: ( in the above link...): Depending on the meter that you used, without the capacitors, you would get about 50VDC from a 50VAC transformer because the meter would "see" 120 positive "cycles" per second, assuming North American power source. If you switched the meter to AC, it would show the RMS (Root Mean Square) value of the "ripple", which would be 1/(sqrt 2) or 0.7071 X the peak to peak AC voltage. Many meters, on the DC setting, will also show the "average" DC voltage. However, if you used an oscilloscope, you would see that the sine wave was actually 71 Volts, peak to peak.

After the capacitors are installed, almost all of the ripple is eliminated, and a DC meter will read the voltage as 71VDC.

The input and output pairs are fine- the dot you see on the wiring diagram indicates the start of each winding.
What is the value of the capacitors you have?

Thanks John for the advice,

That's a bit reassuring and I'll try it out. I managed to find the bad cap and just hook up the good one. There must be a lot of ripple because after going out of that, it still read 30vdc. I ordered a cap from Digikey, but it won't be here till wed and the local supply companies only have 3300mf. I'm thinking of buying a few of those and wiring them in just to get this thing working.

Aside from that, I'm relieved that is the only thing left for me to do. Well, Paint and logos, but that won't be for a while as I have to start cutting. So don't worry Sean, I won't be breaking any records, but I will be cutting:)

Again thanks for the help guys. I'm crossing my fingers that it is the problem and we can work it out. I'm going to add inline, 2 more caps at 3300mf @ 63v until my new caps come from Digikey.

Cheers,
Chris.

AH HA!!! how did you come up with your capacitor value?:)

Ok, well. It's working. You were right John about the caps smoothing out enough to see it. Maybe when I was in NZ and on a 50hz grid my meter could pick up on the unsmoothed DC. That was what was confusing me.

My caps value is 30000mf, 63v. Should cover it I hope.

So now everything is working and I'm about to plug it all in and have a go. Crossing fingers :)

Will post photos tonight if I get back early enough. Thanks everyone for the advice, would've been chasing my tail still had it not been for you guy.

Cheers,
Chris

Just got back from the warehouse. Not sure what is going on but my VFD is not working, the electrician just finished wiring up the VFD, but I think he must have wired it 208 because I'm only getting 120v per leg. Hope he didn't damage the VFD. Will try again tomorrow.

All axis are moving fine, spindle is mounted and ready to go. Just missing the VFD.... It's a 3ph VFD> Same ABB as I own in Auckland.

Chris

208 Volts
 

208 volts is a combination of two 110 volt legs. There are out of phase so when added together you get the resulting 208 voltage. Can't draw a series of sine waves but if you check google you may see it. Scroll down and see chart.

http://www.electriciantalk.com/f30/e...120-208v-7538/

Will my ABB VFD, which accepts 3phase, accept 208v or does it need a different flavor of 3 phase? I'm measuring 211v between phases and my VFD is not powering up. It is a used VFD, but I've had good luck with those. Any suggestions?

Looking at the rail, it just looks as if he's pulled 3ph from 2 rails of the 3 ph input. I think I will just wire it up myself like I did the 480v in Auckland.

Chris

My VFD is rated for 3ph 380-480v. My panel says 3ph 240v, It does delta or wye but still says 240v. So I don't think I can run this VFD on this Panel. Doh. That is a bummer. I'm so used to NZ electricity I totally goofed this VFD up stateside...

Oops...

It's ok, a new 230v 3ph 5hp Mitsubishi is on the way. I hope that will run ok on this panel.

Any friends in EU, Aus, NZ, or other 230v countries need a 7.5kw 3ph ABB VFD in great condition? $340 USD plus shipping.

Some photos of the completed build. That's my guy Tony putting the box together.

Control box mounted. All Axis moving, spindle mounted. No VFD yet.

Will take some more tomorrow.

http://s12.postimg.org/8a7y3pljx/IMG_2386.jpg

http://s12.postimg.org/7w6m441gd/IMG_2391.jpg


http://s23.postimg.org/pd61al3fv/IMG_2382.jpg

http://s23.postimg.org/h543plbjf/IMG_2383.jpg

Thats Nice
 

Can't wait to see what you are making. It's big and massive, WOW!

What
 

What are the red pieces between the yellow electrical connectors?

They're just dividers. I got them from automationdirect. Makes partitioning easy.

your cable chain looks excessively saggy.

The cable I bought was much heavier than the last sort. Alphawire 16Ga with 3 screens. Kind of overkill but I liked the quality. Plus there is a water cooling send and return in there. If I take a couple links out it should be ok.

Chris what is the size of your main beams? they look to be around 9" or 10".

They are 10"

Chris,
I had a 20' long machine with a saggy chain. I added Air, water and lots of copper. To help the chain, I added a sloped cable support from the midline of the machine to the spot just under the motor in the far end parked position. The chain sagged a bit, but could never "break it's bacK". Plus, I found that without out it, I had noticable yaw drag on that side of the machine.....(that near side motor drew about .5 Amp more.)

Great looking build. Wish I was in town to help you!

Best,
Sean

Thanks Sean. I'll probably build something if it still sags after I take out the links.

Having a problem with the new VFD. First off, the motor sounds really rough, at about 60 hz startup speed. Secondly the VFD keeps going into OL while Acceling. The VFD is rated at 5kw and I supposedly have a 3kw water cooled motor. I'd be willing to bet it is actually 3.8kw as it is one of the 100mm wide motors.

Anways, I set all the stuff right on the VFD, start it, and after a bit of accel, it Overloads and stalls out. Probably some stall setting on the VFD. Not sure.

It's a mitsubishi D700 VFD. Here is a link to the manual. Any ideas?
http://www.emcsolutions.com/ebay/man...700-manual.pdf

Thanks,
Chris

Check your Overload current setting.

I have the same VFD and got same frustrating overload current problem. my Spindle is also 3kw but air cooled. I managed to get it bypass the protection, reducing the acceleration/deceleration to a minimum. It's the opposite of what says in the manual, but it works. I have used it on some sheets of ply and mdf and I'm 100% happy. only the deceleration could be a little bit longer to be less forced.
I'm waiting for a rs-232/rs485 converter to get comms with my computer then I can use the Mitsubishi software configurator to further explorer other settings... and use MODBUS. For now it stays like that.
I'm at my daily job and can not tell you all my settings but from head and looking at the manual I believe the most relevant are:

pr7 - 0.1s
pr8 - 0.1s
pr22 - 200%
pr29 - 1

the rest is default or setting the accord to your voltage, max freq and limit current...

With this VFD we can automatic tune the motor but I did not play with it yet...

paulo

Thanks for the help with the VFD. What other settings do you have for it? Did you set it for 3kw, 220v? What did you set spindle frequency to?

My spindle was faulty, and it simply stopped running after about 2 mins. So I sent it back. I think the problem was within the spindle. I managed to get past all the overload protection but it still wouldn't work right. Sounded incredibly rough and then just stopped and wouldn't come back.

The seller has been really good though and sent me a new one right away.

Hopefully the next one will be ok.
Chris

Wow, that was totally fast. Kudos to Qiandingzhensatisfaction on Ebay for his support of his spindles. I sent him back the spindle Thursday and gave him the tracking number, he fedexed on friday for SAT delivery a new one arriving today out of his US warehouse. That had to cost at least $120 to send. What fantastic service really. I would highly recommend him for chinese spindle sales.

I forgot to add, I had also left good feedback for him prior to even checking the spindle, because I had accidentally let the time run out on the last spindle to leave any feedback. So in reality, he could've just let me burn and ebay would've not been able to do much from what I understand. But the guy really supported me.

So will be cutting shortly.

Chris

After check my settings:

pr0 - 0
pr7 - 0.5s
pr8 - 0.1s
pr22 - 200%
pr29 - 1

the rest is default or according your spindle and your electricity.

I'm using 3 phases of 120V at 50Hz which give 240V between phases. Then I limited the output current to 12A and output voltage to 200V. My max frequency is 300Hz and min is 120Hz.

If you want to know other setting just ask which ones...

It worked for me but I'm not satisfied with deceleration, it stops too fast and it looks to me it's a forced stop (any intent to decelerate in long time give me E.OC3 - Overcurrent trip during deceleration or stop).

If you know better settings with a smooth deceleration let me know.

paulo

Yeah, I noticed the same thing with deceleration compared to my ABB VFD, which doesn't brake the decel at all. There are options in P156 to turn off over current errors in deceleration or accel.

Hey Paulo, P250 set to 1000 will coast the motor to a stop!
CC

Thank you. Just tested it Ok. My p80 is set ar initial value 9999. P156 must be set to 0 I get errors. Today I got the rs232 converter. Now I"ll play with fr configurator... lets see

If my VFD keeps overloading and stopping, does that mean my Spindle is getting too hot or something? Overload protection is on for it but it is an electronic thermal overload circuit in the VFD. Not sure how it can sense anything. I'm running a pump that is pumping 268 gph through it. It doesn't even get barely warm before it trips in 1 min. Any ideas?

I could turn off protection but am reticent to do so.

Ok, I'm having a hard time setting up this VFD with this motor. What's happening is that when I set it up at first, and get basic settings, it tends to run right. Pulling about 2.8 amps at 33volts, this is at around 40hz. Just testing. When i get it up to 60 hz, the motor outputs a really high pitched noise and sounds totally wrong.

I can input some more settings which Paulo gave me and get the motor spinning past that, but then it pulls 20 amps at 120v. Not sure why. Perhaps it has something to do with my power.

My power may only be 208. Would this affect it? I am getting 217v between phases and it's possibly set to wye. I really don't want to risk burning the spindle. If anyone has a water cooled spindle, how does your spindle sound, really quite, whisper like, or hard? My initial setting sounds really really quiet.

It's really quite annoying... Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

Its very weird performance indeed. I don't use a Mitsubishi & am reluctant to read the manual.

Since the spindle actually turned, I am fairly sure your wiring is correct but no harm checking it again to be sure. You want to re-check color code of the wire pairs, the color code might be wrong.

While you are at it, its a good idea to go through the VFD setting a afresh. You might just find something.

Mine whispers like a humming bird, no vibration when no bits are attached.
You might want to ramp up the spindle slower.

Did you run the spindle up to 400Hz? or 100~400hz? for a brief period (few secods) ? It might be a spindle running in thingy.

Chris - as Ken says the water cooled spindles run very smoothly.

This link from Machmotion mentions an autotune sequence for the D700, have you tried that?
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=h...%2520Guide.pdf

Ross

Hey thanks guys,

As I figured, I think it is a problem with the power. The electrician may have hooked up the phasing wrong and so the VFD is only getting 120v somehow off the line. I can run the spindle below 60hz and it whispers but once it grabs too much power, it simply squeals and stalls out. I'll talk with the electrician today and try to sort it out.

I've gone through every setting in the VFD 10 times now and can't find a way past this. I've called the vfd company, no joy, everyone says the same thing.

Thanks,
Chris

Ok, I've figured this out guys. The spindle is supposed to be almost silent as I suspected. There was no power problem. It was parameter P72, PWM frequency. I changed it to 3 and it got rid of the squeal. Now all is operating fine and I'm amazed at how quiet this spindle it.

I was confused because the last spindle was so noisy in comparison. There must have been something wrong with the bearings in it or something because it is a night and day comparison. When I adjusted the PWM frequency, the noise disappeared and it runs nearly silent up to 400hz. What a trip.

Ok, so for anyone setting a mitsubishi VFD with a Chinese spindle up, don't set P80 up and don't auto tune.
Chris

good to hear.

Thanks for your help Paulo, and everyone, ken. Really appreciate it. Btw Paulo, hope u didn't set motor tuning on ur spindle. Or p80. The other settings are good though, but I kept motor load profile to constant torque.

Hey Guys,

Been cutting some set and all is working great with exception of a couple of minor details. I've looked all over but have not found anything pertaining to this so if someone knows where it would be, a link would be appreciated. For some reason, when my X motors are at full velocity setting of 1099 in per min and I get the machine booking at full speed, suddenly it's as if I've hit an e stop and the gantry stops dead in it's tracks. The X motors whine very loud and stop immediately. It's as if I am hitting something on th tracks, but there is nothing on the tracks to hit. I turned the X axis velocity down to around 700in per min, and it stopped but it would be interesting to know why that happens..

The next thing is that the X axis, for some strange reason is cutting at about 1/16th of an inch off in either direction while the Y axis is right on the money. It's no big deal for most stuff, but for cutting precision welding jigs it's a pain in the arse. My tubing channels end up about 3/32" to small for the tubing to fit in.

Apart from that, this machine is working beautifully. I'm trying to get mod bus started, but first hooking up the spindle to analogue on the board.

I'm full on into scenic production so what a whirlwind this has been!

Cheers,
Chris

Chris

Your motors are missing steps - that is what the sound is you are hearing.
What you have "hit" is the available torque at your rapid speed.
The motor no longer moves and after the magnetic connection between poles is overcome it gets into a run away and unrecoverable scenario.

Increasing the amps to the driver is one solution or as you have found reducing the rapid speed also works.
Set your driver to its minimum amps and you will find that the missed steps will come in much sooner.

Suggest you connect up a stepper and driver (off the machine) and play with the speed and acceleration and this sound should be easily reproduceable.

Ross

X Axis

Using Mach 3 1024 screenset go Alt F6 (Settings)
Axis Calibration - bottom left hand corner
Follow instructions.

Ross