I recently upgraded a couple of 201's to 203V and 213V. One machine has been running its "V" drive without issues, so far.
Another identical machine intermittently trips the red LED on its "V" drive. The drive is not the least bit hot and it does not reset automatically no matter how long you wait, so I take it to mean that it tripped due to excessive current. The Gecko troubleshooting guide insists this would be due to a short in the motor or a short in the wiring.
Things I have tried so far:
-- swapped the new 203V with a new 213V. Both drives gave the intermittent red LED error.
-- swapped the Vexta motor (pk299-4.5, 8 wire, 6.3 amps, 880 ounce) for a nearly new chinese motor (1232 ounce, 4 wire, 5.6 amps). No improvement, the intermittent red LED errors continued.
-- replaced the cable between the drive and the motor with a new cable. No improvement.
-- ohmed the motor and verified the correct connections. It seems to be correct, and like I said, it had run OK with a 201 for over 10 years.
-- replaced the correct 420K ohm current set resistor with a 180K ohm. No improvement.
-- verified that the power supply capacitor (Camtronics 36V, 20,000uf) holds a charge.
-- added a 1000uf capacitor between the Gecko's power input terminals. That made a huge difference. With the capacitor, I've only had one red LED error in the past week, running the machine all day long.
-- emailed Gecko for advice yesterday. No response as of this time.
-- perhaps this is irrelevant, but I'll throw it out just in case. About a month ago, while still running the 201, it blew several 5 amp fuses in the supply line. Eventually it would blow the fuse as soon as I applied power, and I discovered that the 1000uf capacitor across the Gecko's power terminals was bad. Replaced the capacitor and no blown fuses since.
Questions:
-- why did adding a 1000uf capacitor make such a huge improvement?
-- is my 20,000uf power supply capacitor big enough ? (it powers two 6.3 amp motors)
-- there is a 5 amp fast acting fuse between the power supply and the Gecko. If the Gecko is sensing too much current, why isn't the 5 amp fuse blowing?
-- Is there something I'm overlooking?
Even one red LED error is too many, since it crashes the workpiece, so I need to either fix the problem or else get rid of the "V" drive.