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Protections

In order to protect the driver from undesired environmental conditions, Ingenia Drivers can monitorize and manage the embedded sensors and protections, keeping the system in the safest operation mode whenever an environmental abnormality is detected. In addition to the embedded protections, an external shunt can be deployed to aid the driver to dissipate the excess of energy received during application processing.

Current Protections

Displays the protections of the system related to the current management.

ParameterDescription
Maximum system currentIndicates the maximum permissible current creating torque in the motor

Motor peak current and motor continuous current are displayed here for user reference. Click on the configure link to access their configuration window 

Voltage Protections

Shows the protections of the system related to the voltage management.

ParameterDescription
Under voltage warning levelIndicates the minimum voltage accepted by the system
Over voltage warning levelIndicates the maximum voltage accepted by the system

Depending on the availability of an external shunt the reaction of an out of range situation will be different.

  • If a shunt is not available in your system, once the system is out of the accepted range for the voltage, an Emergency message will be sent and a Fault reaction procedure executed.
  • If shunt is available, and the voltage is higher than maximum, the shunt will be activated. Emergency message will be sent and a Fault reaction procedure executed if the volatge is below the minimum.

The ABSOLUTE bus voltage limits are factory prefixed according to the hardware specifications and cannot be modified. When the actual bus voltage is out of the absolute range an Emergency message is sent and the system executes a Fault reaction.

Setting maximum user bus voltage below the actual power supply voltage may lead to serious damage of the device. Some drivers include internal shunt resistors that would be activated for a long time and cause serious overheat.

Shunt

While decelerating a mechanical load (abrupt motion brakes or reversals), the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy by the motor. This energy is injected into the power supply and could lead to an increase of the supply voltage (depending on the power supply characteristics, especially its output capacitance) and then damage both the controller and the power supply.

A shunt circuit prevents the bus voltage from rising too high and therefore protects the Drive and the power supply. It is based on a resistor (sometimes referred as braking resistor) that is connected between the DC bus and GND through a power transistor. This shunt transistor is automatically activated when the DC bus voltage exceeds the max user bus voltage defined by the user. Its PWM duty cycle can also be configured by the user.

In general, a battery powered system is capable of absorbing regenerative energy and therefore no shunt resistor would be needed. However only use this option if the battery is designed to accept negative current peaks and does not provide a reverse current protection. This information must be provided by the battery manufacturer. Reverse currents might cause catastrophic battery failure.

Some Ingenia Servo Drives include an internal shunt resistor for light brakes and reversals or low energy mechanical systems. These internal resistors are thermally protected and will be automatically disconnected whether overloaded.

If available, user can select whether to use or not an external shunt resistor. The voltage applied to the shunt is modulated with a frequency of 20 kHz approximately and the duty cycle is user configurable.
The external shunt will be activated when the actual bus voltage is higher than Max user voltage plus hysteresis and will be deactivated when the actual bus voltage is lower than Max user voltage minus hysteresis. 

Contact Ingenia for further details on how to configure your shunt resistor.

Temperature Protections

Shows the protections of the system related to the temperature management.

ParameterDescription
Under temperature faultIndicates the minimum temperature accepted by the system before launching a Fault reaction mechanism
Over temperature faultIndicates the maximum temperature accepted by the system before launching a Fault reaction mechanism

The ABSOLUTE temperature limits are factory prefixed according to the hardware specifications and cannot be modified. When the actual temperature is out of the absolute range an Emergency message is sent and the system executes a Fault reaction.

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