• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Power and PC reliability

jcdammeyer

John
Premium Member
When I was using DC servos with a massive 1500W, 105VDC power supply. The two small boards on the side of the assembly are custom projects, one with a PIC processsor. In order to prevent that massive startup current surge the system enables a relay that puts a resistor in series with the 220VAC input to the transformer. This limits the startup current much like the older varistors in Tube Televisions a long time ago. Except it doesn't stay and remain hot then being useless for a power cycle.
Once the time delay is complete full power goes to the transformer and a signal goes to the PC that Servo Power is now available.
LoadShuntAssembled-2.jpg

The other little board in the power supply does two things. If the voltage goes above a certain amount, which happens as DC Servos decelerate and turn in to generators, or when AC power is removed a load resistor is put across the power supply to get rid of the voltage above 105VDC or all of it quickly when powered down. That's for safety so I don't electrocute myself.

In the bottom corner of the photo is the HP_UHU servo drive kit and above that ELS #1 used to provide the step/dir for testing the motor.

The STMBL AC Servo also used the 105V even though the motor is rated at a much higher voltage since this was easier. The problem I ran into was that once the system was enabled the 'ENABLE' signal was sent out to all drives. However since the DC voltage was still rising, the STBML would create a 'FAULT' which would then shut down the 'ENABLE'. And this would cycle. Very annoying.

The PMDX-126 (and the 125 on my MACH3 router) also handle the concept of a Charge Pump. If the PC goes bye-bye the charge pump signal does too and that immediately results in a shutdown of all AC and DC power to things that could be moving. Not an issue for stepper motors but can be for other hardware.

I don't think the simpler systems handle Charge Pump signals.
 
Top