[double a-ron]

Well, looks like the VD on my lathe is taking a dump. I get two alarms on morning power up: over AND under voltage. DC bus voltage starts at about 200 then slowly climbs to 310, then I power up and run no problem. So I have three questions:

How long can I go like this?

How will it eventually fail? I.E. Abruptly or slowly over time.

Has anyone dealt with company's who refurbish them for about $1000?

[haastec]

When dealing with electronics failure, it's anybodys guess as to how long it will go.

As to how? It could be as simple as it just stops working all together or as catastrophic as Vector drive, servo drive, servo motor, or power dist. pcb, etc.; just to name a few in any particular combination.

Unfortunately I don't have any experiences with any repair facilities but others here have, so hopefully they will chime in soon. My suggestion would be to run what you absolutely have to while sourcing a repair facility then shut down and send it in for repairs.

If you cannot afford to shut down production, then bite the bullet and call your HFO for a replacement. All of about 10 minutes to swap and you are back to making money.

Glood luck!

[KenFoulks]

+1


This is definitely a sign that your vector will eventually fail to a non resettable alarm, the DC buss may no longer continue to slowly charge up to nominal voltage. Haas is not aware of any company that can safely refurbish these units. Haas strongly recommends that you contact your local dealer for a replacement part.

[KenFoulks]

One more bit of information:

Haas incorporates everything they learn about their drives into the replacements. This holds true for many other components as well.

[NWSERVICEGUY]

I have come across this problem in the past. The first thing to check out is if the vector drive is actually putting out 200vdc as the monitor is reading. I have found that many times the vector drive is actually putting out the correct voltage however the signal from the vector drive to the mocon board actually is the problem. When your monitor reads 330 vdc buss then this signal wire should be reading 3.3vdc, and the DC buss from the vector drive to the amplifiers should be 330vdc. The first thing I would check at powerup (machine should have been off for a while, or overnight) is the DC voltage at the amplifiers. Then verify that the monitor is reading close the the same voltage. If the voltage is good at the amplifiers but not good on the monitor then we have a problem. Now check the connection from the vector drive to the mocon. I believe it is P17 off the top of my head. Usually it is a twisted pair of wires, one red and one white. Check to see what the voltage is. If the voltage reads for example 2.5vdc and the monitor reads 250vdc then the problem is with the signal coming from the vector drive. If the voltage is 3.3vdc and the dc buss at the amplifier is 330vdc then the problem is not the vector drive but the mocon board. On rare occasions I have lowered the "min dc buss" parameter from 270 to 0 to stop this alarm. I have only done this if the signal from the vector drive to the mocon was the problem.

One of these days I am going to take a vector drive apart and find the circuit that controls the signal to the mocon, then figure a way to fix it.

[double a-ron]

Thanks everyone. NWS, good points. This weekend I'm going to pull out the multi-meter. I'm going back and forth on a new or refurbished unit if need be. I guess it depends on the cost. I got quoted as high as $3600 from Haas. The refurbished ones are under 1k. If it is truly 3600, then it would have to be some pretty amazing schmitt to justify the cost. On the other hand I heard from Norm, our haas service guy that the vector drive in our machine is not original. It was used so who knows. I think I'll call haas and run the serial number to see if it is original. If it's not, and it came from some where else (like it was refurbished), then I guess I'll eat my words.

[gizmo_454]

Yes. Drives are costly. Unfortunately, no offense Haas, HFO's, and Service personnel, Haas' answer is to "replace" the unit. Probably because time has shown that many companies will lose more money waiting for the bum drive to be shipped, diagnosed, repaired, and re- shipped than they will to just replace it. However, (NOTE TO HAAS), it would be nice if they would offer a rebuild/repair option.

Maybe I have a bad drive. Ok. I buy a replacement drive. It would be nice to have the old bad drive repaired so that it is on the shelf in the event that sometime down the line, the replacement, or one in another machine dies, I can swap it out and keep on trucking with minimal down time. That would make business sense.

Since no one can "safely" repair a Haas Vector Drive, step up to the plate Haas.

As to the cost, you mentioned above the drive is $3600. In my book, that is not over the top by what I have seen. Our Mitsubishi servo drive cost $2400 to repair at Mitsubishi. Replacement cost for the 18 year old drive was $13,000. Of course, that was an up to date drive with cabling, new servo, and a 1 year warranty. Yes, Haas... 1 year warranty. Not 90 days!

Don't get me wrong, I like our Haas machines. There are just a few things, in my opinion, could be helped along in the customer service and repair aspect.

Good luck with your VD woes!

Mike

[double a-ron]

This company I'm looking at will ship a refurbished one first. Then you send yours back! That's how you run a repair service! Here is the link.

Doesn't HAAS have a pretty considerable market share? I mean, everyone in my area uses them. The one guy I know that went with a milltroncs, wishes he would have went with a haas. My point is, with that kind of presence in the market they SHOULD be cheaper than an 18 year old mitsu. They should also be setting the standard in warrantys as well. If they are as "rock solid" as they always claim (and I agree), they should have no problem warrantying their products as long as competition. Point of interest, that company I found sends all units out the door with a 180 day warranty. Twice what haas offers.

[Andy S]

This company I'm looking at will ship a refurbished one first. Then you send yours back! That's how you run a repair service! Here is the link.

Doesn't HAAS have a pretty considerable market share? I mean, everyone in my area uses them. The one guy I know that went with a milltroncs, wishes he would have went with a haas. My point is, with that kind of presence in the market they SHOULD be cheaper than an 18 year old mitsu. They should also be setting the standard in warrantys as well. If they are as "rock solid" as they always claim (and I agree), they should have no problem warrantying their products as long as competition. Point of interest, that company I found sends all units out the door with a 180 day warranty. Twice what haas offers.

We bought a refurbished vector drive from the company that u linked. They sent the new one over night had the machine running by 10 the next day. worked perfect with no issues. We couldnt justify the extra expence to buy the hass vc at the time. Hope this helps your decision. Andy

[double a-ron]

Well it finally took a dump. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. I started a new job (700 parts) Saturday morning, filled the bar feeder full of bars, and let 'er rip. Came in today, Monday, and it was still pooping out parts. Then just as it was doing number 703 (I set the control to stop at 725) it quit. Bus voltage now below 300. Got a new/refurbished one on order. Should be here tomorrow. That was my longest unattended run. 48hrs.

If anyone can point me in the right direction for machine monitoring I would appreciate it. It's a 2002, I am wondering if all this new monitoring software will work on a machine this old. Are there people that can set this up?

[double a-ron]

One more thing, the guy I talked to at Northern Machine Tool Services said he repairs way more new style units with the single fan than he does old style with the dual fans. He recommended I switch back to the old style unit, which I did. Really nice guy, A+++++ all the way! I would recommend this over buying new any day.

[Al_The_Man]

If the actual DC bus is low, there is only two thing usually that the bus consists of, a 3 phase bridge rectifier and a Bank of electrolytic smoothing caps, usually the bridge is either good or bad not partial.
The electrolytics's lose their capacity over time, this could be the cause.
Al.

[double a-ron]

New drive is in. Took 10 min to install and the lathe works perfectly.

[haastec]

Great news!

Now, back to more light out running.

[double a-ron]

I know right? What an amazing concept: let the machine work, I'm going fishing. I read the fanuc factory runs 24-7 lights out. Robots building robots with no humans on site.

I found a company that offers a way to monitor an older machine like mine by email and text. If I want to spend more money I can do things like power the machine on and off, turn on and off coolant, even monitor spindle load. I'm not going to get too carried away, the email/ text thing is fine. Maybe a fire suppression system as well. I'm not going to lie, I didn't sleep well on Saturday and Sunday, kept waiting for a phone call from the fire department.

[Devaraj Vaid]

Dear Everyone,
We undertake the repairing and servicing of Haas make vector drive and servo amplifiers. We have many past experiences in repairing and servicing of Haas make vector and servo amplifiers, at best price. If anybody interested in getting their faulty drives serviced, please mail me at [email protected].

Thanking you

[engine tech art]

Just replaced the HCPL7800A ( isolation amplifier) on the small board at the back of the dive you cant miss it and there it is! fixed all problems gone. Now to relocate the 20 risitors away from the HCPL7800A and maybe a cooling fan.
It even fixed the spindle fault when the first time i start the spindle.
Costed all of $40 with shipping.

The reason for this problem is the 20K resistors are too close the HCPL7800A ,temp limit is 85 deg. They now have to be relocated with a fan.

I had this problem since 6 months after Haas instaklled the drive. Called them they said too bad need a new one. Real Nice!

This is a SL 20 2000 with a 2007 smart drive.

[PJRitz]

We had a Vector drive that was failing for a while, and all of a sudden it took out 4 servo drives at once, Burned up components on all 4 drives. This was on a Haas 630 horizontal mill