We are more than halfway through redesigning our drive product line. The new drives will have the familiar prefix but will end with the letter 'X' standing for Xilinx CPLD core logic. Finished and waiting for production printed circuit boards are the G201X and the G320X. The G250X is finished this week. Each has significant performance improvements over their their 'non-X' predecessors.
Next up is the G203X. The G203V is our flagship drive and it was the first to use a CPLD. It is the drive that always has the very best new stuff in it.
The G203X will contain a very exciting new technique that no other drive I'm aware of has. It will "change" its power supply voltage according to load and speed.
At low speeds a motor can get by with a low power supply voltage. At high speeds a motor needs a high supply voltage. Light loads can do with a low supply voltage while heavy loads require a high supply voltage. Motor heating on the other hand is a function of voltage.
Normal drives (ours included) cause a motor to get hot anytime it's turning no matter the speed or load.
Now imagine a motor that gets hot only when it's turning very fast or has a heavy load. That motor would stay much cooler when running an average CNC application than any motor presently. That motor could then be used with a much higher supply voltage than now because the drive regulate motor supply voltage.
I have designed a new circuit that does just that. The same full-bridge drive that regulates motor phase current also acts as a variable voltage regulator. Low supply voltage at low speeds, high supply voltage at high speeds. All automatic.
I'm looking to see if this circuit is well enough along now to include in the G203X. I have been working on it for over a year now and it is an exciting development.
Mariss