AN-009
Troubleshooting a Red LED - Analog Drives
Introduction 5. Remove power from the drive. If using a
brushless motor, connect Hall sensor inputs
A red LED can indicate any of the following fault and set the 60 / 120 phasing switch to the
conditions: correct position according to the motor.
Apply power to the drive and rotate the
• Over-voltage motor by hand. If the LED is red or changing
• Under-voltage between red and green, this could indicate
• Invalid Hall State an issue with the Hall sensor inputs. See
• Drive Inhibited Invalid Hall State section for details on this
• Over-temperature fault condition.
• Short circuit
• Over-current Note: Most motors have 120 degree Hall
• Power-on Reset sensors.
Fault conditions are non-latching, meaning that 6. Remove power from the drive and connect
when the fault condition is removed, the drive will motor power cables. Set the Test/Offset
enable (green LED). switch to the OFF position and set POT4, the
Test/Offset pot, 7 turns from the full
Note: BX drives (e.g. BX25A20, BX30A8) have a clockwise direction.
switch setting for latching faults. The fault
condition must be removed and power must be 7. Apply power. If the LED is red, it could be an
cycled or inhibit line toggled to clear a fault indication of a short circuit fault. See Short
condition. Circuit section for details on this fault
condition.
Troubleshooting Instructions 8. Remove power and connect the controller.
Remove any command from the controller to
1. Remove all connections from the drive. This avoid unexpected motion in the motor.
includes the voltage supply, motor power
cables, feedback and any controller I/O. 9. Apply power. If the LED is red, check if the
controller is disabling the drive. See Drive
2. For a brushed drive, configure the amplifier Inhibited section for more information about
for voltage mode. For a brushless drive, the inhibit input.
configure the amplifier for open loop mode. .
The switch settings for each mode can be
found on the first page of the drive
datasheet. Fault Conditions Explained
3. If using a brushless drive, set the 60 / 120 Over-voltage and Under-voltage
phasing switch to 60 degrees, which is the
OFF position. An over-voltage fault occurs when the bus
voltage exceeds the over-voltage limit of the
4. Apply power to the drive. If the drive has drive. An under-voltage can occur if too little
inverted inhibits, short the master inhibit pin voltage is applied to the drive. The voltage rating
to signal ground (for more information on can be found on the drive datasheet.
inverted inhibits, see Drive Inhibited
section). The LED should be green. The • For DC input drives, verify that the DC input
drive will fault if too much or too little voltage voltage is within the spec of the drive.
is applied to the drive. See Over-voltage
and Under-Voltage section for details on
this fault condition.
• For AC input drives, verify that the AC input
voltage is within the spec of the drive.
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AN-009
Troubleshooting a Red LED - Analog Drives
Regeneration won’t have enough current and a separate
supply will be required.
If the drive faults during a deceleration or when
lowering a vertical load, it could be due to • If using a separate supply for the Hall
regeneration energy raising the bus voltage sensors, make sure the ground reference for
beyond its over-voltage limit. the supply is tied to the signal ground of the
drive.
During these types of moves, the system’s
mechanical energy gets converted into electrical • Rotate the motor and verify that ALL Hall
energy that flows back onto the DC bus. This sensor inputs are changing and follow the
charges the capacitors in the power supply and Hall sequence in the table below.
raises the DC bus voltage.
60 Degree 120 Degree
A shunt regulator may be necessary to dissipate
the energy regenerated by the system. Hall A Hall B Hall C Hall A Hall B Hall C
1 0 0 1 0 0
• Some drives have built-in shunt regulators. 1 1 0 1 1 0
Shunt regulator operation is described in the 1 1 1 0 1 0 Valid
drive datasheet if available. Green
0 1 1 0 1 1
LED
• For additional information on calculating 0 0 1 0 0 1
regeneration energy and sizing a shunt 0 0 0 1 0 1
regulator, see section III.Regeneration in the 1 0 1 1 1 1 Invalid
Power Supply Selection document or contact Red LED
0 1 0 0 0 0
AMC tech support.
1 – Indicates high level hall sensor input (5V)
Invalid Hall State 0 – Indicates low level hall sensor input (0V)
Brushless drives have 3 Hall sensor inputs that Drive Inhibited
determine a Hall state. The drive will fault if an
invalid Hall state is detected. For standard inhibits, the drive disables when the
inhibit pin is grounded. For inverted inhibits, the
If the LED is red or changing between red and drive enables when the inhibit pin grounded.
green as the motor rotates, it could be an
indication of an invalid Hall state. A drive with standard inhibits has a 0 ohm SMT
resistor labeled “J1” installed on the PCB.
• Connect only the Hall sensors to the drive Removing this jumper will invert the inhibits.
and apply power. Amplifiers can be ordered with the J1 jumper
removed and have a “-INV” on the end of the
• Make sure the 60 or 120 phasing switch is in part number, e.g., 12A8-INV. Some drives have
the correct position according to motor. a DIP switch to invert the inhibits. This option will
be listed on the drive datasheet if available.
• Verify that all Hall sensor inputs are wired
correctly to the drive. Note: Some drives have directional inhibits
(+INHIBIT / -INHIBIT) which inhibit motion in
• Measure the voltage levels for all Hall sensor their respective directions but do NOT cause a
inputs. The voltage levels should change red LED.
between 0 and 5V as the motor rotates.
• Measure the voltage of the inhibit pin. It
• If using a motor with both Hall sensors and should read 5V if left open and 0 if grounded.
an encoder, make sure the supply for the
feedback has enough power. Drives with
onboard Hall sensor power rated at 30mA
ADVANCED Motion Controls • 3805 Calle Tecate Camarillo CA. 93012 • Tel: (805) 389-1935 •www.a-m-c.com
AN-009
Troubleshooting a Red LED - Analog Drives
• Verify if the drive is configured for standard Note: BDC drives (e.g. BDC30A8) are PWM
or inverted inhibits. input drives that have the same current limiting
behavior as analog input drives.
• If your controller is disabling the drive, verify
under what conditions this will occur, e.g., Power-on Reset
position following error, position limit
reached, etc. All amplifiers will have a brief flicker of a red LED
during power up. This is the power-on reset that
Over-temperature is built into the amplifier that occurs on power up.
The drive will fault if the heat sink base plate
temperature exceeds 65C.
• Safely measure the heat sink base plate
temperature.
• If the temperature exceeds 65C, additional
cooling may be necessary.
Short Circuit
The drive will fault if a short circuit is detected on
the output. This can occur if any of the motor
phases are shorted to power ground, AC
ground, or shorted together. Use a DMM to
measure the resistance between two points of
interest. A 0 ohm resistance indicates a short
circuit.
• Measure the resistance between each motor
phase.
• Measure the resistance between each motor
phase and both the power ground and AC
ground.
• Make sure the motor phases are not shorting
to AC ground through the motor housing or
shielding on the motor power cable.
Over-current
An over-current fault will occur if commanding a
current greater than the peak rating of the drive.
In most cases though, the drive will limit the
current to prevent an over-current fault.
PWM input and Sinusoidal input drives will
alternate between an enabled and disabled state
to limit current when outputting current greater
than the continuous rating of the drive. The LED
will alternate between red and green.
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