Thanks again Al,
I connected the 240 (I could have sworn the last time I measured it - a while ago - that it was closer to 230) with no result other than finding out that I can't just change the connections on the control transformer to make its output even close to double. On the bright side there was no smoke or fire or even blown fuses!
I will look to see if I can find a small transformer to step up the voltage and try again.
If I hit the jackpot and the drive works right away that would be great! (I would have to sell it and move on to something that I could tinker with ) I would think that the chances of that (fingers crossed) are slim - it is 20 years old with maybe a more than a few dozen of what I imagine are "obsolete" ICs, hundreds of discreet components, and I've noticed a few pieces that are cast into plastic black boxes. If any one of these components were damaged it would probably be impossible for me to trouble shoot it during this lifetime with my limited knowledge. Looking at the AB site and their "Legacy Products" manuals (every one you could hope for except how to set up the drive -I'm perhaps a little bitter about that) it seems like they were trying to make the swiss army knife of motor drives with an add-on that you had to buy for everything along with a tome of a manual just to hook it up, nevermind understand it.
Perhaps another question would be: How difficult, expesive, or time consuming would it be to make a homemade IGBT based phase converter? The igbt modules are not that expensive to get surplus if you are not looking for specific drop-in replacements (the ebay link that I posted to the ones that I have is waiting for a eureka moment), they seem to be in lots of obsolete drives. Why would this be any harder than making your own stepper or servo drive and software? - or even balancing the phases on a rotary phase converter? There seem to be ICs available to greatly simplify the process from what it was 20 years ago (just like for steppers and servos). What are some of the pitfalls that I am not seeing?
Thanks,
-Jason  |