[barchdesigns]

I'm replacing a Fanuc A06B-6044-H007 AC Spindle Drive in my 3 Axis Vertical CNC machine with a Delta VFD-E in my shop. I've been gathring information for the last year in preparation for this project and am surprised at how little information I could find.

I started this thread to help document how to replace an old Fanuc Spindle Drive with new VFD technology. Also, ask a few questions, and hopefully get some answers.

In this machine I bought last year, the Fanuc spindle drive goes into an alarm state after running it for about an hour. I would have to let it sit for a while and then power it back on and run it for another hour. While we could dive into why the Fanuc Drive was misbehaving or how to repair it, I would like the purpose of this thread to stay on topic of replacing Fanuc AC Spindle Drives with newer VFD technology drives.

All code that we used to do this is Open Source. I hope that it will help someone else or someone will take this code and make it better.

The main project Kicked off tonight.....All the communications have been figured out. We programmed an Ardiuno MEGA to mimic a Fanuc Spindle drive and plugged it into the Fanuc 6M controls. We wanted to see if we could talk back and forth to the Fanuc 6M Controls and make the control think it was still connected to a Fanuc Spindle Drive. That was the relatively easy part, and we overlooked how to set parameters on a VFD to run a motor. No one here has a good understanding of that.

At one point we had the drive running the spindle motor up to a pretty good speed. But it was challenging to find any settings for the VFD to make it run the motor up to speed. Most of the time (including where we are at now) the motor starts to spin but never gains RPM. You can hear the VFD changing pitch like it is trying to ramp the RPM up, but then it will either over torque or pull a very large number of Amps for longer than I am comfortable letting it draw that much power and not be changing RPM.

Is anyone familiar with the basic motor settings for a Fanuc Model 3 Motor? I have some of the basics covered, I know it is

Fanuc Model 3 Spindle Motor
200V
3.7kw/5.5kw (Continuous/30 minutes)
17Amps/22Amps (Continuous/30 minutes)
4 Pole
3 Phase
Insulation: Class F
RPM 1500/6000
Amb Temp 40 degrees C


We do'nt know how to set the Delta VFD-E Drive to accurately run the Fanuc AC Model 3 Motor. It seems to be having a really hard time getting it going. Here is what we have:
Delta VFD-E
Model# VFD055E23A
7.5HP/5.5kw
Three Phase 230V

We have the communications covered like FWD, REV, Zero Speed, etc, and are receiving and sending all the corect signals back and forth between the VFD and the Fanuc controls, but we need help tuning the motor using the Delta VFD.