One of the best harmonic U tube vidios that I have watched. Found ABB tech support to be prima donnas that do not like to answer any questions. It took nogoodnics at ABB almost two weeks and maybe 5 emails before they finally told me how to look up the DC Buss voltage. Asked me several times why I need to know that. Da troubleshooting & placing the # on our PM'S. Contractor installed over a hundred ABB 6 & 18 Pulse drives and throw all the paperwork away. Lazy ABB tech got ignored when I asked him if their 100 HP 18 Pulse drive huge cabinets had an adjustable thermostat for large noisy cooling fans like Danfoss has. Told me he could not help me because I did not have the serial # which lazy person never asked me for but had it right in front of me so I gave it to him. Found Danfoss, Allen Bradley and years ago Fincorr to be best in class for tech support.
We’re happy to hear you found the video helpful. Regarding your experience with our technical support, thank you for your feedback and for sharing your experience. At ABB we strive to provide excellent support to all our customers, and we're sorry that we fell short of your expectations in this instance. Your feedback is valuable to us, and we use feedback like yours to improve our support services. As an example that is directly tied to your scenario, our Technical Support is based out of our Wisconsin factory, while the 18-pulse are manufactured at a different US-based facility. We previously identified that our Wisconsin team didn’t have timely access to 18-pulse as-built drawings, thus our responses were not as timely as we expect. As a result, we’ve since made improvements to processes that allow that data available to be more readily available. If you have any further questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Funny you should mention 18 Pulse drives. Over the years I have asked at least 5 drive techs from 3 different companies what they thought of 18 Pulse drives. They all said stay away from them. While PM'ing an ABB 18 pulse 75 HP drive for a return fan found the Usual 660 to 675 Volt DC Buss to be think it was around 590 volts. This fan always ran in auto mode and never over maybe 45 Hertz. I asked to be able to power it down to troubleshoot it but told me it was too important and never gave me the okay. The AHU for it had two maybe 125 or 150 HP 18 Pulse drives that both always ran at the same time.
I agree with those (5) drive techs. I mentioned 18-pulse for awareness of the technology, as there is an install base of them out there, but I never recommend them for new installations. With an 18-pulse, it essentially rectifies (9) phases to make the DC bus, instead of the typical (3) phases. Even though many expect the voltage drop across the phase shifting transformer, and additional/balancing reactor, to result in a lower DC bus... with 18-pulse we end up seeing a bit higher DC bus with the rectification of (9) phases instead of (3). Had they let you power it down to troubleshoot, and assuming the jobsite's 480V power wasn't low, the first thing I'd be looking at is those (9) phases after the transformer. Other than the obvious voltage magnitude test points between input and DC bus, I'd also be casting a critical eye on the performance of those (9) phases. Each was likely fused, check the (9) fuses to see if any were open. After the fuses, I'd check the 18 diodes, were any of those bad/open. When in doubt, current is the great equalizer of troubleshooting - check for balanced current across the (9) phases. (Some of those tests are easier to do than others - from a safety aspect, I'd have started with the fuses and diode check as those are power down tests). Complexity of troubleshooting - another reason I personally don't like 18-pulse:)
One of the best harmonic U tube vidios that I have watched. Found ABB tech support to be prima donnas that do not like to answer any questions. It took nogoodnics at ABB almost two weeks and maybe 5 emails before they finally told me how to look up the DC Buss voltage. Asked me several times why I need to know that. Da troubleshooting & placing the # on our PM'S. Contractor installed over a hundred ABB 6 & 18 Pulse drives and throw all the paperwork away. Lazy ABB tech got ignored when I asked him if their 100 HP 18 Pulse drive huge cabinets had an adjustable thermostat for large noisy cooling fans like Danfoss has. Told me he could not help me because I did not have the serial # which lazy person never asked me for but had it right in front of me so I gave it to him. Found Danfoss, Allen Bradley and years ago Fincorr to be best in class for tech support.
We’re happy to hear you found the video helpful. Regarding your experience with our technical support, thank you for your feedback and for sharing your experience. At ABB we strive to provide excellent support to all our customers, and we're sorry that we fell short of your expectations in this instance. Your feedback is valuable to us, and we use feedback like yours to improve our support services. As an example that is directly tied to your scenario, our Technical Support is based out of our Wisconsin factory, while the 18-pulse are manufactured at a different US-based facility. We previously identified that our Wisconsin team didn’t have timely access to 18-pulse as-built drawings, thus our responses were not as timely as we expect. As a result, we’ve since made improvements to processes that allow that data available to be more readily available.
If you have any further questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
This is why I can't quit UA-cam
Funny you should mention 18 Pulse drives. Over the years I have asked at least 5 drive techs from 3 different companies what they thought of 18 Pulse drives. They all said stay away from them. While PM'ing an ABB 18 pulse 75 HP drive for a return fan found the Usual 660 to 675 Volt DC Buss to be think it was around 590 volts. This fan always ran in auto mode and never over maybe 45 Hertz. I asked to be able to power it down to troubleshoot it but told me it was too important and never gave me the okay. The AHU for it had two maybe 125 or 150 HP 18 Pulse drives that both always ran at the same time.
I agree with those (5) drive techs. I mentioned 18-pulse for awareness of the technology, as there is an install base of them out there, but I never recommend them for new installations. With an 18-pulse, it essentially rectifies (9) phases to make the DC bus, instead of the typical (3) phases. Even though many expect the voltage drop across the phase shifting transformer, and additional/balancing reactor, to result in a lower DC bus... with 18-pulse we end up seeing a bit higher DC bus with the rectification of (9) phases instead of (3).
Had they let you power it down to troubleshoot, and assuming the jobsite's 480V power wasn't low, the first thing I'd be looking at is those (9) phases after the transformer. Other than the obvious voltage magnitude test points between input and DC bus, I'd also be casting a critical eye on the performance of those (9) phases. Each was likely fused, check the (9) fuses to see if any were open. After the fuses, I'd check the 18 diodes, were any of those bad/open. When in doubt, current is the great equalizer of troubleshooting - check for balanced current across the (9) phases. (Some of those tests are easier to do than others - from a safety aspect, I'd have started with the fuses and diode check as those are power down tests).
Complexity of troubleshooting - another reason I personally don't like 18-pulse:)