AKD external regen

This upgrade/modification was completed by Pete Bachant on 2015.01.22.

The problem

Turbine power dissipation using the AKD drive was limited to the internal regeneration value of 200 W, despite the ability to provide much more positive power input. For a turbine with 1 m² frontal area, this limited us to a tow speed of about 1.4 m/s.

The solution

The turbine test bed was upgraded by adding a Kollmorgen BAR1000-15 external regeneration resistor for the on-board servo drive. This increased turbine power dissipation capacity from 200 to 1000 W. The resistor is large, and therefore needed its own cabinet. This cabinet was attached to the existing electronics cabinet, and a piece of flexible conduit was run between the two for wiring.

The updated wiring schematic can be found here.

New AKD settings

In the settings menu in Kollmorgen AKD workbench, there is a section for Regen. From this screen the BAR1000-15 resistor was selected and the appropriate parameters were updated automatically. See this commit for details.

Photos

See http://imgur.com/a/qOAsV