Syncing motors...

[KilroyNo1]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I've recently purchased a C&G Mustang 2000 plasma table with four Max200 power supplies/torches, 12' x 24' water table and a Burny 5 controller and I'm in the process of setting it up. The rails have been set up, laser leveled both horizontally and vertically, the distance between them set perfectly and the gantry set on them. I'm now having an issue that I'm hoping somebody can help me rectify.

When I plug in the machine (110V plug), I immediately hear an alarm and the "sync" light on the Burny 5 flashes. I've spoken with someone who sets up and retrofits these tables and he says that the drive motors are out of sync. I would really like to have him complete the set up, but he won't be in the area for another month and there is nobody else locally to do the job. He has told me that I may get lucky and be able to sync them up manually.

Is there any way to sync them without manually attempting to turn one slightly, plug it in, hope for no alarm, rinse, repeat....? Anyone have tip(s) on how to go about setting up from here?

[Alan Bradford]

This thread should be in the main group and not Hypertherm.
The Mustang with a B5 CNC used a drive system that was made by C&G.
They mounted the resolvers in the gear rack a few inches ehind the drive motors.
It has been a while since I worked on one, but here goes
Remove both drive motors from the gear rack.
Have someone hold the drive power button on (It may be a toggle switch)
Pull the resolver out of the gear rack, and slowly rotate the resolver gear until the alarm clears and the sync light goes out.
Carefully put the resolver back in the rack, then the drive motors.
It may take a few tries but that is the simpelest way.

When you square the machine, you can rotate the resolver housing to get the machine square. Loosten the 3 screws that hold the resolver to the frame, and rotate it. You will see one side of the machine move when you rotate the resolver. Get it as square as possile.

Good Luck

[KilroyNo1]

OOPS! I didn't scroll down far enough to get to the main section, I simply chose the one that was closest to my set up and posted.

Thanks for the quick reply Alan, I'll give it a go tomorrow!

Just to clarify, the drive motors will NOT turn until the alarm clears and the sync light goes out? Hence the necessity to remove the motors first?

[Alan Bradford]

Correct... The motors will not turn until the drive is in Sync.
But the possibility exists for the machine to jump when it does sync up.
This is a safer method and also keeps your fingers attached to your hand.

[KilroyNo1]

The motors are mounted so that they can be pulled away from the gear track running down the rails, so that's how we disengaged them. I tried rotating the resolver, to no avail. We engaged the motors again and once again plugged in the machine. The far side (opposite the CNC controls) started pulling the gantry and the sync alarm stopped (for about 5-7 seconds). Unfortunately, it kept pulling the gantry and twisting it out of square and the sync alarm started again. It would not stop trying to pull (it would get out of square so far that it could not pull any further), so I unplugged it immediately to keep it from burning out. We pulled the gantry back on the far side and plugged it in again, the motor once again pulled, sync alarm went off, then came back on again as the motor continued to pull. Unplugged it once again.

Stuck at this point.

You mention a toggle switch, but the only one I can find is in the control box mounted at the back of the machine. I don't see anything indicating a "drive power button" on the Burny 5 anywhere.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...%205%20001.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...%205%20010.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...%205%20012.jpg

[Alan Bradford]

Ok so this will not be easy.
It has been about 7-8 years since I worked on one of these.
The old gray matter aint so good any more.
I have to consult a C&G Guru and Ill get back to you ASAP

[KilroyNo1]

We managed to get it "in sync" and the alarm has stopped. Now I have a few more connections to make from the Max200 power supplies and I will be done all of the wiring. Hoping you can be of some help again, Alan.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1069630/39.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...0Wires%201.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...0Wires%202.jpg

The first photo is one that I received before I purchased the machine. You can see a grey wire plugged into the rear of the power supply, but the only grey wires that I have yet to connect are what I believe to be signal wires to each of the plasma heads. Unfortunately, the signal wires are much smaller in diameter than the one that is shown in the first photo, so I am at a loss as to what connects there.

The second photo shows what I think are the 4 signal wires (grey), a large ground wire which is bolted to the gantry underneath the Burny controls and a small ground wire that is connected to each of the power supplies by a small screw.

The grey signal wire has 4 wires inside of each. They are White, Green, Black and Red. I'm not sure where they connect, but I am quite sure that each of them has to go to a power supply. There is a spot that they will fit at the top right of the power supply, but that only has screws for 2 wires to attach (it looks like 4 screws in the photo, but the outside 2 screws keep the plastic piece mounted to the power supply).

The small ground wire on each power supply looks like it is simply grounding the machine as a back up and can go to any ground source, but I just want to clarify that. There is a large work lead to the water table from each power supply, so that will take care of grounding the plasma power.

The large ground wire connected beneath the Burny controls has me stumped. It is of the correct diameter to go into the connection at the bottom of the power supply (first photo), but as there is only one wire and 4 power supplies that can not be where it goes.

Any additional information would be much appreciated.

[cervinisgt]

Here is the ground instructions out of a HPR260 manual. I think that it should be close to what your doing. Electrical standards dont vary much. They pretty much want everything grounded. As for the rest of the wires, do you have a manual for that table. That should tell you about the rest of them. The picture of inside the power supply with the 2 connections looks like it would be a 0 volt connection for a remote switch. I will look at the rest and see if I can come up with anything.


Steps to take
1. Unless noted, use only 6 AWG (16 mm2) welding cable (Hypertherm part no. 047040) for the EMI ground cables
shown on the diagram (blue).
2. The cutting table is used for the common, or star, EMI ground point and should have threaded studs welded to the
table with a copper bus bar mounted on them. A separate bus bar should be mounted on the gantry as close to
each drive motor as possible. If there are drive motors at each end of the gantry, run a separate EMI ground cable
from the far drive motor to the gantry bus bar. The gantry bus bar should have a separate, heavy EMI ground cable
(4 AWG part no. 047031) to the table bus bar. The EMI ground cables for the torch lifter and the RHF console
must each run separately to the table ground bus.
3. A ground rod that meets all applicable local and national electrical codes must be installed within 6 m (20 ft) of the
table. This is a PE ground and should be connected to the ground bus on the cutting table with 6 AWG
green/yellow grounding cable (Hypertherm part number 047121) or equivalent. All PE grounds are shown on the
diagram in green.
4. For the most effective shielding, use the Hypertherm CNC interface cables for I/O signals, serial communication
signals, power supply-to-power supply multi-drop connections, and interconnections between all parts of the
Hypertherm system.
5. All hardware used in the ground system must be brass or copper. The only exception is that the studs welded to the
table for mounting the ground bus can be steel. Under no circumstances should aluminum or steel hardware be used.
6. AC power, PE, and service grounds must be connected to all equipment according to local and national codes.
7. * The positive, negative, and pilot arc leads should be bundled together for as long a distance as possible.
The torch lead, work lead, and the pilot arc (nozzle) leads may only be run parallel to other wires or cables if they
are separated by at least 150 mm (6 in). If possible, run power and signal cables in separate cable tracks.
8. * The ignition console should be mounted as close as possible to the torch, and must have a separate ground cable
to the bus bar on the cutting table.
9. Each Hypertherm component, as well as any other CNC or motor-drive cabinet or enclosure, must have a separate
ground cable to the common (star) point on the table. This includes the ignition console, even if it is bolted to the
power supply or to the cutting machine.
10. The metal braided shield on the torch leads must be connected firmly to the ignition console and to the torch. It must
be electrically insulated from any metal and from any contact with the floor or building. The leads can be run in a
plastic cable tray (track) or covered with a plastic or leather sheath.
11. The torch holder and the torch breakaway mechanism – the part mounted to the lifter, not the part mounted on
the torch – must be connected to the stationary part of the lifter with copper braid at least 12.7 mm (1/2 in) wide.
A separate cable must run from the lifter to the bus bar on the gantry. The valve assembly should also have a
separate ground connection to the gantry bus bar.
* Applies to systems that use a remote high frequency (RHF) console
12. If the gantry runs on rails that are not welded to the table, then the rails need to be connected with a ground cable
from each end of both rails to the table. These need not go to the common (star) point, but could take the shortest
path to the table.
13. If the OEM is installing a voltage divider to process arc voltage for use in the control system, the voltage divider
board should be mounted as close as possible to the point where the arc voltage is sampled. One acceptable
location is inside the plasma power supply. If the Hypertherm voltage divider board is used, the output signal is
isolated from all other circuits. The processed signal should be run in twisted, shielded cable (Belden type 1800F
or equivalent). The cable used must have a braided shield, not a foil shield. The shield should be connected to the
chassis of the power supply and left unconnected at the other end.
14. All other signals (analog, digital, serial, encoder) should run in twisted pairs inside a shielded cable. Connectors on
these cables should have a metal housing and the shield, not the drain, should be connected to the metal housing
of the connectors at each end of the cable. Never run the shield or the drain through the connector on any of the
pins.

[cervinisgt]

https://www.hypertherm.com/library/f.../800980r15.pdf

No I was wrong about the remote wire. Here is a link to the manual for the power supply. Looks like your 4 grey wires may go through the fitting next to the interface inputs. Then hook to a terminal block inside the case. Although I would think that it would be a cable with 4 seperate wires rather than just 4 wires.

[Alan Bradford]

The MAx 200 has a terminal strip inside for the Star wires and the OK to Move (Machine Motion or Arc ON are other terms for it)
The treminals you point out is plasma start for Hand Toch Leads.

The C&G also has 4 THC Controls on it, and they aslo connect to the Max 200
I dont think there is a voltage divider in each power supply.
They connect the DC output voltage directly to the C&G control box.
I am in Canada and do not have access to my manuals, so I cant tell you which ones go where.
I should be back in the office on Friday.
I will also try to get my C&G expert to log on the this forum and he can help.

[PlasmaCraft]

The (4) grey cables will go to the (4) plasma power supplies. The grey cable has (4) wires. Red, Black, Green, and white.

There should be a small, 2" X 3" tan phenolic card wire-tied to one of the cables or hoses on the inside of the Plasma Power supply. If you are facing the fron of the Max 200, they should be on the right side. These boards are the plasma interface boards that came with the C&G Mustang. Oh, that black cable grip in the back of the Max 200, that is where the grey cable goes. I will send you a pdf of the schematic if I can locat it on my laptop.

[PlasmaCraft]

Open the cables manual, select Mustang, then plasma interface, then select the HT2000/Max200 listed in the list. This will show you the grey cable, the interface card and the connections. you will be connecting the grey cable to the card inside the plasma power supply.



Ah, the Mustang manual will not load. send me an e-mail to jpw@plasmacraft.com and I will send you your C&G Mustang manual.

I hope this helps!

Jonathan White