Dead VF2 Vector Drive

Hey guys,

The vector drive on my 99 VF2 died suddenly yesterday. Of course I'm working on parts that need to be finished for Monday. I think it's the original one so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. It died right in the middle of roughing the contour of a block, maybe 30% spindle load, nothing really heavy. It tripped the Phase Perfect and the circuit breaker on the 3 phase panel. The voltage coming out of the PP is 244-245V on all three phases and is connected to the 244-260V taps in the machine and has run fine like this for years under very little use.

I opened up the cabinet and noticed a bit of a burning smell coming from the drive. I restarted the machine and got alarm 160 and 119. I checked the parameter page and it shows DC bus at 36V. Measuring at the vector drive I'm getting 294V instead of the 345V that it should be. Also, there are no lights illuminated on the vector drive, neither the power or fault lights.

What I would like to know is there anything else I should be checking other than the drive and would there be anything that would have been damaged by the drive dying or something else that made the drive die in the first place?

Hopefully Haas has a new/rebuilt one in stock but I've read that only Haas will install it themselves, I'll find out tomorrow. Depending of the price I may look elsewhere, does anyone have experience with Northern Machine Tool Service in Illinois. There was one guy, either on here or another forum, that had a positive experience with their rebuilt drive. I couldn't find anyone up here in Canada who repairs these things.

Thanks for the help.

The spindle motor could have been shorted while the drive was going out, I would meg the spindle motor cables, also check to make sure the regen is not shorted out. If i were you i would have your HFO come in to repair it, they can meg everything and a usual drive replacement is typically a 1-2 hour job, well worth the 200 bucks for the piece of mind, and most people do not have a megger.

as far as experience with other re builders i have no experience, I have used precision zone in Chicago area for Mits and Fanuc drives. with great luck, not sure if they even repair Vector Drives.

Good Luck

I am not saying you shouldn't fix this yourself, because this site is all about DIY. That said though, look at the down time to fix/repair yourself vs having your HFO come in and repair the same day. Will it be more costly? Yes! Will you be up and running the same day they come to fix? Most likely as long as the parts are in stock. You can call them to confirm that they have a drive for your machine even.

How important is it to meet your Monday deadline for parts delivery?

Just something to think about.
Good luck which ever way you go.

I got those same alarms on my 1998 HL-2, and it was the Vector drive. Couple of weeks ago.......
The Haas guys carry those in the van, if they haven't recently used the stock they carry. My experience the HFO guy met another tech that still had one in his van on the way over, and I was running a couple of hours later. Guessing about $3500 - $4K installed, with the core exchange..... Could be more or less. Seems like I've seen some posts about rebuild/exchange by non-Haas vendors too.....

It was a long weekend of work to get those parts finished but I got them done. Luckily I've got a great boss and he let me use the mill at work.

Eaglemike, when your drive failed were any of the indicator lights still illuminated (Power or Fault)? None of mine are on even with the machine powered up.

I'll get the motor tested to see if anything shorted in there. If not, I'll try one of those vector drives from the company I mentioned in the first post. It was the user wheelieking who bought one and is working fine for him. The price for a vector drive from Haas here is $4000 vs $1000US from Northern Machine Tool Service.

No fault lights, just the error messages..........
Let us know how it goes!
all the best,
Mike

That rebuilt drive in my SS is still going. And, Rich at NMTS is a great guy and very helpful.

I absolutely would not hesitate to use another one of his drives.

All good points though about having a HAAS technician check out everything else. (motor/regen)

Precision Zone in Chicago should be able to rebuild your drive or possibly even exchange it. I had my Magnetek rebuilt by them 2 years ago and it's working fine. They can also megg your motor and rebuild it if needed. The regen resister has a spec resistance, Haas can tell you what it should be. If it's in the range of stock resistance, it should be fine. If it fails it's usually completely open, or shorted closed and you will have some other issues to fix...

Eaglemike,

What I meant to ask was were any lights illuminated on your vector drive when the machine was turned on. The "Power" and "High voltage present" lights are on when everything is functioning normally but they should still be on if there was a problem with another component, shouldn't they? Now, when I power up the machine those lights aren't on and neither are the "Regen Fault" or "Fault" lights either.

No lights were on, as I recall...... TBH, I called a guy that knows, and the tech support guy at the HFO. I gave them the error codes, and they both said "Vector drive went bad." Service tech showed up 2-3 days later (as promised by HFO) and I was running shortly.....

there is a company i bought several of mine from , Northern Machine tool services. they are cheap and great company . Google them

Not sure if you found a solution yet but we can take a look at it for you. Shoot me an email and I'll give you some more info about what we do. [email protected]