Member postings for Rod Fitzsimmons Frey

Thanks for all the advice - it was very helpful! My goal is to do this "right" rather than squeeze pennies, largely as a learning exercise - it was working before but had clearly been worked on by a number of people before with different opinions on how to do it, and it was a bit of a hodgepodge.

Joseph: The 60V is for the stepper drives and I assumed the 24 volt was for the controls since it is a bespoke rectifier board (it was made by a Canadian importer/modifier called Novakon) and all the relays etc. on the machine are 24 V. I agree, assuming anything is a poor idea, and even if it was the intent it may not be the best idea.

My modified plan from what I read here is three power supplies:

1. a PC power supply feeding the motherboard and (via the 5i25) the 7i76 5V logic
2. an unregulated supply taking 220V ac to 60V dc and feeding the stepper drivers
3. a 24V switching PS (I have a Meanwell 2.5A DIN mounted unit in hand) for the 7i76 field voltage plus the e-stop loop.

The e-stop loop controls 24V relays feeding the VFD and the 220:60 transformer.

I'm still a bit fuzzy on isolating the various grounds. All three power supplies, plus the VFD, will be fed from the same 220V mains circuit. I'd thought the mains earth will be connected to the machine chassis as well as the electronics enclosure, the ground side of the unregulated power supply output, and the VFD ground. The Meanwell site says the output common should also be connected to the chassis ground, but wouldn't that introduce ground loops? Should I leave the grounds from the switching supplies floating?

Thanks for all the help!

Hello! I am in process of wiring my mill which uses Gecko stepper drivers, a Mesa 5i25/7i76 combo, a VFD that would like 220V.

I have a transformer to take the 220V down to 60 V and 24 V AC, and a bridge rectifier/capacitor bank to rectify it. The rectifier board has high voltage and low voltage output terminals.

My question is about isolating power sources. Can I use the 24V DC from that rectifier to both power the stepper drivers and provide power to the Mesa board and other sensors like the prox sensors? It was obviously intended for that purpose, but is it a good idea? I do have a DIN mounted 24V supply, but I'll save it if there's no problem using the one unregulated supply.

Thanks for any insights!