Rotary Phase Converter Questions

Congrats on the startup. Now to totally enjoy your success, you need to throw the main switch and do your very best mad scientist Bwaaa Haaaaa Haaaa. Mike
 
Curious, did you look at the current draw on the 220 single phase side once you had the idler motor up and running?
 
Keith
I seen your question last night and it made me curious .

with no load the idler pulls just a smidge over 4 amps .
We have the pony motor wired up on a separate circuit and with the idler spun up to speed before switching on the power it pulls 16 Amps for about 5 seconds on start up .

If we switch the power on at the same time as the pony it spikes up over 60 amps
 
I have built a number of RPC's and modified ones built by others to get them to work right. Idle current is a good indicator of how well the converter was designed and if the L1-L2 and L1-L3 capacitors are of a good value. An RPC is a tuned circuit of sorts. It actually 'rings' if it's designed right and the idle current is very low. With what you described you were doing you have a LOT of inductance to tune to a point that it will 'ring'. With those current draw numbers, it seems that you hit the sweet spot. I am also going to assume at this point that your leg to leg voltages on the RPC are within 10 volts of each other as well under no load. I would advise you to verify the leg to leg with a full expected load as well to be safe. One things that RPC's can do when the capacitance isn't correct is develop a high leg on L3. You can see 500 or more volts under no load or during a load transition on to off. Just something to keep in mind if you are running anything that's electronic on the 3 phase power.
 
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