Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Cooling Rutex drives

Hi Chris,

The Rutex drives seem to run a bit cooler than a Gecko for the same
power inputs. This is partly because the Rutex drives need a 17-30 V
supply to produce the internal 5V rail whereas the Gecko has to drop
from a higher voltage down to 5V for the internal logic and there is a
bit more constant dissipation. Overall, the servo drives seem to run a
lot cooler than stepper drives, too. For my R990H's I have them bolted
to a 1/4" aluminum bracket which is in turn bolted to the 3mm thick
aluminum front panel of a 3U rack mount cabinet without any fan or
additional heatsinking and the front panel only gets very slightly warm
to the touch even after several hours of driving my Nema42 servos hard
at 65V and peak 20A from a 1500VA toroidal Transformer. I've just
posted a pic in the "files" folder "BP Clone CNC Retro" on CCED showing
how I mounted the Rutex's. You're looking at the drives and the bracket
which is bolted to the 3mm aluminum front panel.

If you're planning to run the drives hard you will need some additional
heatsinking over and above the aluminum bracket. I personally feel a
fan is just one more think to break and prefer passive heatsinking - but
I know others have excellent results with fans.

Cheers, Peter



Chris Baugher wrote:

>Hi,
>Anyone here that is using Rutex servo drives, can you give a rough idea of
>how much cooling is needed? The instructions say to use a "large"
>