Why would I NOT want to power a Fadal Control from its own source?

I run a phase converter, having to fire it up to boot up the Fadal control seems silly.
Even more weird to me is having to use the knife switch to kill power to the control if I want it to reboot. I’d prefer not to cycle my Spindle drive power anymore than necessary.
Am I missing something obvious? Is there a way to reboot CNC88HS without killing the main power?

Any down side to running an dedicated 110vac circuit and switch to the control?

This is all occurring during testing/ upgrades and teaching myself the control.

Thanks
Keith



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Why would you want the control to be on without spindle or drives? Not like its a conversational machine and you would be programming at the machine. It might be possible, but you could be opening a big can of worms. Maybe slightly different voltage levels between the control and other parts of the machine, ground loops etc etc.

If you just want the option to reboot, im pretty sure pushing the green button energizes a latching relay circuit. These are used in case the power flicks for off for a while, when it comes back on it will not re-energize until you push it again. Bit of a safety feature. But if you want to be able to reboot, shouldnt be too hard to isolate this circuit and add a momentary stop button to kill power. Then just push the green button to start again. Just google latching relay circuit and you will see what im talking about. These circuits normally include a stop button but the fadal control does not have one.

Your right, cycling power to spindle drive is not good. I burned out the charge resistor in the VFD of my 4020 from this when I first got the machine and was troubleshooting a bunch of stuff.

Are the drives powered from the 110v? Looks like it from a half assed glance.
Seems like it would be good for setup too.


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Yes, the drives are powered from 110v. But the spindle drive isn't, likely there are other things that wouldn't be powered up correctly if you try to inject power elsewhere...

I *really* wouldn't start down this road. Taking a known-working machine and messing with it in unconventional ways is a recipe for great pain. It also means people like ourselves won't be able to help when/if you have problems with that setup down the road.

If you wait a couple of minutes in between power cycles you shouldn't have any issues turning the machine on and off. Leaving the RPC on is a small cost to get the machine running and learn the control!

The drives are 3 phase on most machines, but some machines do use 120v single phase input drives. Manual says DC machines are either 87VAC 3 phase or 120VAC single phase. AC drives are 230VAC 3 phase input. See details here: https://flintmachine.com/images/uploads/pdfs/maintenance-manual/Axis_Drive_Systems.pdf

My machine is 1994, its DC with the higher output 6000 series servos and it uses 87VAC 3 phase to power the drives. Everything else is single phase on the machine. Only spindle and servo drives using 3 phase.

mmurray70 said:

The drives are 3 phase on most machines, but some machines do use 120v single phase input drives. Manual says DC machines are either 87VAC 3 phase or 120VAC single phase. AC drives are 230VAC 3 phase input. See details here: https://flintmachine.com/images/uploads/pdfs/maintenance-manual/Axis_Drive_Systems.pdf

My machine is 1994, its DC with the higher output 6000 series servos and it uses 87VAC 3 phase to power the drives. Everything else is single phase on the machine. Only spindle and servo drives using 3 phase.

Click to expand...

Ah yes I forgot the cardinal rule: 'not all machines are my machine' In my VMC15s the input to the servo drives is 120V single phase, but it makes sense that the larger machines wouldn't be.