Fadal VMC15 XT 3 Phase to single phase

[ianagos]

So here is the reason they need to have a Transformer there is always a reason electrical engineers design things the way they do

The Fadal requires the incoming voltage to be with in a controlled voltage for there VFD Drives they are using this is so it will not fail from over voltage, from the Fadal spec's I found these specs for the reasons why

The spindle inverter must have incoming voltage between 190VAC and 240VAC MAX. If you
underrate the voltage or push above 240VAC you are asking for an early failure. The amplifier
chassis is not quite as critical, but under voltage is a real
problem. It causes the amplifiers to push additional
current to make up for the under voltage condition and
can keep the amps in a redline situation; and that's never
good.

So the normal NA supply in most areas is 245v and can be higher so if you direct wired to a Fadal CNC machine that was using a Fadal VFD Drive it would not last very long without voltage regulation

So for those that are doing a single Phase connection and your machine has the Fadal VFD Drive than you will need to protect the VFD Drive form over Voltage or it will fail if you have a direct connected 240v Power supply using L1 / L2

I agree with what you are saying and the vfds fadal used especially the amc drives are extremely sensitive to over voltage and that’s the whole reason I suggest keeping the transformer in. I’ve now blown 2 amc drives due to over voltage.

Some of the other drives are more tolerant than the amc but his machine has an amc drive.

Mactec do you have a company that rebuilds vfds? I have an amc that is blown I’d consider sending your way.

[mactec54]

I agree with what you are saying and the vfds fadal used especially the amc drives are extremely sensitive to over voltage and that’s the whole reason I suggest keeping the transformer in. I’ve now blown 2 amc drives due to over voltage.

Some of the other drives are more tolerant than the amc but his machine has an amc drive.

Mactec do you have a company that rebuilds vfds? I have an amc that is blown I’d consider sending your way.

What is the model # of the drive and I will see if there are any parts available sometimes it is the Input converter and sometimes the output IBGT's if the caps have exploded then the boards will be damaged if this has happened then most are not repairable unless there are some boars from another one that can be used

Have you looked inside if you have you could post some photos of what looks damaged from that I could tell you if they can be fixed or not

This is another reason there should be a line reactor before the VFD Drive this will help to protect the VFD Drive from over Voltage this is what a Reactor is for especially large Hp VFD Drives that can cost a lot to replace

Line reactors stabilize, or smooth, the current waveform, which reduces over voltage (or under voltage) line tripping and potential damage to the drive.

[ianagos]

What is the model # of the drive and I will see if there are any parts available sometimes it is the Input converter and sometimes the output IBGT's if the caps have exploded then the boards will be damaged if this has happened then most are not repairable unless there are some boars from another one that can be used

Have you looked inside if you have you could post some photos of what looks damaged from that I could tell you if they can be fixed or not

This is another reason there should be a line reactor before the VFD Drive this will help to protect the VFD Drive from over Voltage this is what a Reactor is for especially large Hp VFD Drives that can cost a lot to replace

Line reactors stabilize, or smooth, the current waveform, which reduces over voltage (or under voltage) line tripping and potential damage to the drive.

Looks like all the small caps blew.

I’ll have to get a model number for you tomorrow.

[mactec54]

Looks like all the small caps blew.

I’ll have to get a model number for you tomorrow.

It is what is under that Board is where you will see what has failed, the electrical cabinet filtration must be bad to have that much dirt and gunk in the drives this does not help

You will have to remove some of the large Philips screws and the small ones around the edge to get to remove that board, so just look to see what is attached to the Heatsink the 5 large Philips screw at the top right by the caps will have to be removed and may be some of the other lower left screws also, do not damage the screw heads use the right driver to undo them

[jswalwell]

This is an old thread, but in researching switching my 15XT to single phase I found a lot of posts but not a lot of success or information. I have converted mine. No, you don't need the Fadal single phase transformer. You don't need any parts. My machine is a DC servo machine with Baldor VFD. "Single phase" power is two 120V phases 180 degrees apart such that they measure 240V across them, I think you can call this "split phase." In a DC servo machine like mine the only item that runs off of 3 phase is the VFD. So long as your VFD will run on single phase, you can convert the machine. I did this to my Milltronics years ago and never had a problem. I recently did the conversion to my 15XT, just hardwired it without a transformer. My Milltronics did not have a transformer of any kind from the factory. The transformer in a 3-phase machine is mostly for adapting the machine to various voltages of the incoming power. The inductance of the transformer also likely behaves as a reactor by filtering the incoming power. Yes, you lose ~40% spindle power, for most of us this doesn't matter.

The Baldor VDF will run on single phase, you tie leg 1 to one of the split phase wires and connect legs 2 and 3 to the other. There's a tiny jumper inside the drive on the board that is facing you when you open it up, it's the only jumper on the board. For three phase it is set to jumper pins 2-3, for single move it to jumper 1-2. That's it. Baldor suggests using a reactor inline with the two phases. This will filter your incoming power from spikes and noise, so you may want to do that if you have issues or insist on machining parts during lightning storms. Reactors are cheap to buy. I didn't install one but may eventually.

You need to connect 120V power for the DC power supply that supplies the servos and power for the computing and other items. You can tie all of this to one of the 120V single phase legs. Note that on the Fadal diagram (backside of the main panel door) where is says "5" and "6" for the servo power, just one is 120V, the other (5 I think) which is not labeled is ground. The power supply consists of a bridge rectifier and a capacitor with a solid state relay to switch it on and off in between; about as simple as it gets. You can either run a dedicated neutral back to your panel for ground or use machine ground. Neutral (white) and ground (green) are both tied together at your breaker panel ground. Power is supplied to my machine through a 50 amp breaker at my panel and 8 gauge wire. You might consider re-sizing fuses at the knife switch to protect the VFD. Everything else was running off of 120V anyway and shouldn't need different fuses. I think some have said that the servos run on 90V. If that's true for the incoming DC supply then resizing the DC supply by installing a fuse 3/4 (90/120) of whatever is in there might be a good idea. That fuse is located at the DC power supply in the side cabinet.

[JGanch]

I just got done reading through this thread and felt like I was being pointed in several different directions. Perfect timing for some clarification from someone with the same machine. Appreciate the post, thanks!

[Cs19]

Could I get some help converting mine over? I could pay you for your services.

Chris

This is an old thread, but in researching switching my 15XT to single phase I found a lot of posts but not a lot of success or information. I have converted mine. No, you don't need the Fadal single phase transformer. You don't need any parts. My machine is a DC servo machine with Baldor VFD. "Single phase" power is two 120V phases 180 degrees apart such that they measure 240V across them, I think you can call this "split phase." In a DC servo machine like mine the only item that runs off of 3 phase is the VFD. So long as your VFD will run on single phase, you can convert the machine. I did this to my Milltronics years ago and never had a problem. I recently did the conversion to my 15XT, just hardwired it without a transformer. My Milltronics did not have a transformer of any kind from the factory. The transformer in a 3-phase machine is mostly for adapting the machine to various voltages of the incoming power. The inductance of the transformer also likely behaves as a reactor by filtering the incoming power. Yes, you lose ~40% spindle power, for most of us this doesn't matter.

The Baldor VDF will run on single phase, you tie leg 1 to one of the split phase wires and connect legs 2 and 3 to the other. There's a tiny jumper inside the drive on the board that is facing you when you open it up, it's the only jumper on the board. For three phase it is set to jumper pins 2-3, for single move it to jumper 1-2. That's it. Baldor suggests using a reactor inline with the two phases. This will filter your incoming power from spikes and noise, so you may want to do that if you have issues or insist on machining parts during lightning storms. Reactors are cheap to buy. I didn't install one but may eventually.

You need to connect 120V power for the DC power supply that supplies the servos and power for the computing and other items. You can tie all of this to one of the 120V single phase legs. Note that on the Fadal diagram (backside of the main panel door) where is says "5" and "6" for the servo power, just one is 120V, the other (5 I think) which is not labeled is ground. The power supply consists of a bridge rectifier and a capacitor with a solid state relay to switch it on and off in between; about as simple as it gets. You can either run a dedicated neutral back to your panel for ground or use machine ground. Neutral (white) and ground (green) are both tied together at your breaker panel ground. Power is supplied to my machine through a 50 amp breaker at my panel and 8 gauge wire. You might consider re-sizing fuses at the knife switch to protect the VFD. Everything else was running off of 120V anyway and shouldn't need different fuses. I think some have said that the servos run on 90V. If that's true for the incoming DC supply then resizing the DC supply by installing a fuse 3/4 (90/120) of whatever is in there might be a good idea. That fuse is located at the DC power supply in the side cabinet.

[ballistic42]

I went through the same issue. I ended up getting an American Rotary AD30. Was not cheap but wired it up and no issues what so ever works great every time. I have full spindle power.