Motor troubleshooting

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SiddMartin

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Have a motor that will run for about 15 hours and then shut off. When the next crew comes in, they are able to re-start w/ no issues. When I went to check the overloads / starter, the motor is controlled by a computerized thing - a - ma - bob. Assuming it has adj. overloads in the system that you may be able to program. I checked the Fault log and there were no faults, no overcurrent / undervoltage or anything. Motor's amperage was fine while it was running while I was there. Only thing I can think of is that the computer is programmed to shut off the motor for some reason , (hence no fault logs). I was not able to mess w/ the controls of the thing - a - ma -bob.

Voltage good, amps good and no faults logged.

Anything else I could check?
 
bth0mas20 said:
Could be a problem in your system that its connected to and not the motor.
Click to expand...

yes, that is what I believe. I don't do a lot of motor troubleshooting / control and want to make sure I'm not missing something
 
Sidd,

You say the other crew comes in and they start it, How do they start it, from

where do they start it, is it all in the thing a ma bob?
 
SiddMartin said:
Have a motor that will run for about 15 hours and then shut off. When the next crew comes in, they are able to re-start w/ no issues. When I went to check the overloads / starter, the motor is controlled by a computerized thing - a - ma - bob. Assuming it has adj. overloads in the system that you may be able to program. I checked the Fault log and there were no faults, no overcurrent / undervoltage or anything. Motor's amperage was fine while it was running while I was there. Only thing I can think of is that the computer is programmed to shut off the motor for some reason , (hence no fault logs). I was not able to mess w/ the controls of the thing - a - ma -bob.

Voltage good, amps good and no faults logged.

Anything else I could check?
Click to expand...

Thing-a-ma-bob? You checked the fault log so you must have a manual. What exactly is this thing-a-ma-bob? Drive softstart etc..
How is it being controlled PLC or hard wired?
If the other crew is able to restart without any problems and you do not see anything in the fault history leads me to believe it is designed to stop after a predetermined amount of time; although drives can be progreammed to clear active faults upon a stop command.
What is this motor controlling?
 
Strahan said:
Thing-a-ma-bob? You checked the fault log so you must have a manual. What exactly is this thing-a-ma-bob? Drive softstart etc..
How is it being controlled PLC or hard wired?
If the other crew is able to restart without any problems and you do not see anything in the fault history leads me to believe it is designed to stop after a predetermined amount of time; although drives can be progreammed to clear active faults upon a stop command.
What is this motor controlling?
Click to expand...

the fault log is in the computer, the computer is the motor starter, and has a visible display of RPM / AMP / and hours the motor has been operating. By browsing through the computer menu's, i was able to find the fault log and it only had 1 fault that was some time ago. There was a ton of settings and just a mess of stuff this computer could prolly do. The actual control of this motor is out by a tank that it pumps into. Typical start / stop .
 
can be a pile of things.

PLC's are not foolproof and faults may not be logged in.

Did you do an amp check on all legs during start up and when running?

Lots of possibilities and not enough information to determine what is going on.
 
SiddMartin said:
the fault log is in the computer, the computer is the motor starter, and has a visible display of RPM / AMP / and hours the motor has been operating. By browsing through the computer menu's, i was able to find the fault log and it only had 1 fault that was some time ago. There was a ton of settings and just a mess of stuff this computer could prolly do. The actual control of this motor is out by a tank that it pumps into. Typical start / stop .
Click to expand...

Ok so it is a hard wired start/stop no PLC. So everything you need to know is in this motor controller. I'm having a hard time figuring out what it may be as far as I know you can't program a motor controller to stop after an amount of time without giving it a stop command. Verify control scheme and you MUST start by getting info off of controller and getting online to get some info like the manual. You will only be fooling yourself until this happens. Let us know what the info on the controller is maybe we can help.
 
Sorry I dont have more info, I more or less wanted to make sure that there wasn't something simple that I didnt think to chk. Without that info, I'm limited to the help from here, I understand that

thank you for your replies and I will post the results as soon as I find out
 
SiddMartin said:
Have a motor that will run for about 15 hours and then shut off. When the next crew comes in, they are able to re-start w/ no issues. When I went to check the overloads / starter, the motor is controlled by a computerized thing - a - ma - bob. Assuming it has adj. overloads in the system that you may be able to program. I checked the Fault log and there were no faults, no overcurrent / undervoltage or anything. Motor's amperage was fine while it was running while I was there. Only thing I can think of is that the computer is programmed to shut off the motor for some reason , (hence no fault logs). I was not able to mess w/ the controls of the thing - a - ma -bob.

Voltage good, amps good and no faults logged.

Anything else I could check?
Click to expand...
Where is control power coming from a bathroom light switch leg in the security room??
 
Thermal overloads?

Thermal overloads?

This is just one of those things to add to the list since, as others have mentioned, there's a lot of info missing. Back in '05, the NEC required motors with Variable Speed Drives (VSD's. . .also referred to as a thing-a-ma-bobs) to have an internal thermal trips unless the VSD was programmed to protect it. Maybe those are overheating.

Again, put it on the list. . .

Best of luck.
 
What?s hooked up to the business end of the motor? How does that interact with the rest of the surrounding equipment?
Anything malfunctioning, or functioning and misunderstood, in the normal stop circuit (logic) could cause the listed indications as well as anything not specifically programmed to cause a log entry. There isn?t another one near by that it is supposed to share duty with thingy is there?
 
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