Is it possible to use the 3 phase line in the space?

[Noah]

I found a plug-in to run Mach3 on a PC with a Galil motion control board that I got for free. I found all the documentation that I needed on the Galil website, and the project of turning an older scoring machine into a CNC router looks promising.

I removed the computer and the controller from the machine. However, this system uses 3 phase motors (which is rather surprising given the small dimension of the servo motors, about 5x5x6"). I would like to know if it would be possible to hook up this controller box at VHS to verify that I have established communication with the motors and that I can actually control the position from Mach3.

[KittyCat]

Depends on how much cat food you have. Anything is possible with enough food

[Noah]

I’m sure Filou will be open to sharing his cans of chicken pate

[KittyCat]

Do you know what type of 3 phase you need and socket and amperage?
We have a 240v system with no neutral.

[Noah]

240 V would make it. Motors are rated 340 Volts - 4.6 Amp. There are 3 motors in the system, so that would be about 4.7 kW but I only need to test one motor at a time, plus I won’t put any load on the motors, so power draw would be much less than that.

I think a 20A breaker is more than enough.

[Noah]

Oh, and this controller doesn’t have a socket, only the bare wires, but I can put one.

[KittyCat]

340 v sounds more like a brushless dc motor or servo? Is there a vfd or control box? Is there a nameplate on the machine of power requirements?

[Janet]

340v could cook a lot of poutine, just sayin’

[Noah]

Yes, these are servos. There’s no VFD yet.

I only have nameplates for the motors not for the whole machine. This machine used to cut glass. I’ll put a VFD and a spindle later

[Noah]

Correct me if I’m wrong. Motors are 340 Volts but anything under that will still work, the difference will be the power that they deliver will be less.

There’s no transformer in the system that would raise voltage to 340 V

[Janet]

Oh totally - not a worry about voltage at all. I was making a joke about @kittycat who runs on poutine in addition to electronics. I believe he accepts poutine as a form of payment. All good.

[Noah]

Cool, I’ll prepare fried poutine for everyone then. Or I have a couple of DIN mount breakers that I can donate, if they are found useful. I need to double check how many amps though.

[packetbob]

Do you have a controller for the BE342HJ motor?

[packetbob]

Cuz these look like DC servo motors

BE_Series.pdf

Good things will probably not happen if you connect to AC

[KittyCat]

Feed me…

Probably best to find controller for that. Plugging that into wall outlet will most likely destroy it

[Noah]

They are 3 phase servos. I know they look more like DC, I thought the same when I first saw them.

[Noah]

yes, I wouldn’t connect the motors directly to the wall. I have the controller.

The drives are “The shark” from servo dynamics. These are 3 phase analogous drives. controlled with a -/+ 10V signal that comes from a Galil 1842 motion control board that is inserted in the PCI slot of the computer.

[Noah]

I didn’t find the manual of the drives online. So I emailed the manufacturer and they sent me this. Now that I read it again, I see it says that it can take 1 or 3 phase power input. I thought it would only work on 3 phase, because that’s how it is wired now.

THE SHARK.pdf (261.2 KB)

The inconvenience with using 1 phase is that the motors wouldn’t get the same power than using 3 phase. But since this is only a bench test, I can use the 240v single phase line in my office, if they boot, great. If not, I may be requesting access to the 3 phase line at VHS again.