Hi everybody,
I have a question regarding power supplies and different options.
I have purchased a servo from teknic / ClearPath servo, these servos run on their own IPC-5 Power Supply (249$ each)
I wonder if there are other cheaper options that would work fine on these servos during load changes? If someone has tried or has any tips, I'm open to suggestions.
Specifications for IPC-3/5:
Kind Regards
I couldn't find an equivalent power supply on the Mouser or Digi-Key websites but I did find 350W power supplies for around $150. So, maybe you can find one cheaper... Maybe someone makes a semi-custom power supply or one with adjustable voltage, etc.
Does each servo need a 350W power supply, or is that power supply for more than one?
That looks like a highly specialised power supply. It looks like it has two outputs, so I expect you can plug in two servos. You didn't give us any links to the exact servos you have.
While it may be possible to get something cheaper, you're not going to make it work with a $100 power supply. That will definitely cause problems, probably involving a visit from the fire department with sirens wailing.
I would not mess around with this one. Buy the specified power supply and spend your mental energy on something else.
DVDdoug:
I couldn't find an equivalent power supply on the Mouser or Digi-Key websites but I did find 350W power supplies for around $150. So, maybe you can find one cheaper... Maybe someone makes a semi-custom power supply or one with adjustable voltage, etc.Does each servo need a 350W power supply, or is that power supply for more than one?
Hi,
Thanks for looking around, but any power supply that can match the current, voltage, and power capabilities of the IPC-5 would work fine theoretical.
MorganS:
That looks like a highly specialised power supply. It looks like it has two outputs, so I expect you can plug in two servos. You didn't give us any links to the exact servos you have.While it may be possible to get something cheaper, you're not going to make it work with a $100 power supply. That will definitely cause problems, probably involving a visit from the fire department with sirens wailing.
I would not mess around with this one. Buy the specified power supply and spend your mental energy on something else.
You can actually drive around 4 servos minimally on a power supply without problem, The two outputs can be connected into a power hub that has more servo connections as well as power guard to remember positions if the main power would go down.
ServoLink: https://www.teknic.com/model-info/CPM-MCVC-3432S-RLS/
I agree with you, it's best to use their specific power supply, I already have one tho, this was more just a question. Thank you for your answers.
Best Regards
It’s not unreasonably priced, for a high wattage supply with an unusual output voltage. That what such supplies used to cost, before some of them became “commodities” produced in bulk, that enabled economies of scale and lower prices (like desktop pc supplies...)
Hi rndBit,
I am an applications engineer at Teknic and I ran across your post about the IPC-3/5 power supplies.
All NEMA 23/34 ClearPath motors can be powered from a DC power supply outputting 24 to 75Vdc, so you can use other 3rd party power supplies.
When choosing a power supply for your application, the size of the supply is going to be highly dependent on the exact application, the number of motors, and their sizes/windings. It's almost impossible to predict exactly how much supply power you will need for a given application, but I can provide a general suggestion or two.
A higher voltage power supply will allow you to spin nearly any motor at higher speeds. Since power is torque * speed, a higher bus voltage will result in more mechanical output power. Teknic generally recommends using a 75V supply to get the most out of these motors. You can see the effect different voltages have of the torque speed curve for any motor right on Teknic’s website.
The amount of electrical power an application draws will also depend on both the torque and the speed of the motor(s) being used. A motor using a lot of torque at high speed will draw more power than a motor using torque but not moving, and a motor sitting still with no load will draw almost no power (unlike a stepper motor which always has holding current through the windings). This means that the power requirements of an application will vary as the system is in operation. With this in mind, it's important to use a power supply with large peak reserves/capacitance, as opposed to using some switching supplies which are optimized to run with more or less constant loading.
DVDdoug - For the higher-power IPC-5 (350W continuous, 900W peak), you can always run at least one ClearPath motor of any size, in any application. With the lower-power, open-chassis IPC-3 (225W continuous, 900W peak), you can almost always run one ClearPath motor of most sizes, in most applications.
You can usually run two motors with an IPC-3, and in machines with smaller motors or when the motors are not moving at the same time, it’s possible to run four motors (or even more in certain cases). In the case of an IPC-5, I’ve seen instances of customers running 6 or more motors from one supply, although more commonly we see 2-4 motors instead.
Best regards,
Brendan
In thinking about this further, there’s one additional topic worth discussing, and that is regen (which if you’re not familiar with, is when current is fed back into the power supply from the motor).
In some applications, ClearPath motors (really any industrial servo or stepper motor) can produce significant amounts of regenerated electrical energy. This energy is created when the torque of the motor opposes the direction of the velocity (e.g. during deceleration or when lowering a gravitational load).
During regen, current flows from the motor back to the power supply which increases the supply voltage. If the power supply is not able to dissipate the regenerated energy, the voltage will continue to increase until the power supply shuts down, the motor shuts down, or the power supply is damaged.
Not all applications experience regen, but if your application does, it is important to use a power supply capable of handling electrical regen. Not all power supplies can handle regen, but the IPC 3 and 5 power supplies can.
Thanks,
Brendan