Powerflex 40 Drive Losing IP Address

Could anyone help me understand why a powerflex 40 drive with an ethernet card keeps losing its IP address? I can go in with bootp and set the IP and then connect with Drive Executive and turn bootp off and set the IP in the parameter list on the drive but within about a month i am back out there doing this all over again. I swapped the communication card out for a brand new and reprogrammed and it worked for around a month and then it happened again. We have over a hundred other powerflex 40 drives and i've never had this problem before.

This drive is in a panel with five other powerflex drives that i don't have any problems with and is connected to the same ethernet switch as the others, so i don't think its a short or anything that is clearing the IP address. Any ideas?

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=25438&highlight=pf40
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=97558

We have had so many problems with the PF40 5HP and below frame size, swapping them out with PF500 Series when one goes out. Yes it is expensive but so is downtime.




p.s. The drive itself is still good, you can still use them with analog, i/o etc just not ethernet.

The issues is turning out to be heat related, that because the PF40 was not designed with Ethernet on-board, the add-on card, and the "maternity dress" cover you need to hold it, the drives are MUCH more critical as to how the air flow is around it. If you DID follow the mounting requirements TO THE LETTER, in terms of clearances around the drive (4" top and bottom, and wireway counts as an obstruction), it tends to hold up fine for years. If not, they tend to start cooking in their own juices after a few thousand hours. it's actually the power supply that starts failing first, but because that failing part of the power supply basically only powers the Ethernet Card, when that part fails, people assume it's the Ethernet card and replace IT, into a drive with a failing power supply.

We've found that the PF525s are a much better solution; smaller footprint to start with, higher temperature rating on the drive to start with, less clearance requirements to start with (2" vs 4"), and Ethernet built-in from the beginning.

This is by no means to start an argument just food for thought.

We designed 3 drive cabinets for the larger size 10hp PF40 Drives.
The whole design of project changed so instead of 10hp drives it was
the smaller frame size 5hp drives 3 1/2 hp motors, same amount of drives.
the clearance was more than what was called for in the manual, and even checked out by our local rep. In a temp/humidity controlled room, with a cooling unit on the drive cabinets they still failed.
We fought tooth and nail with the plant that it was not an ether net design issue the it was a drive issue. We trended the temp, amps, humidity only because
the plant manager was ready to throw us out of the plant.

Poor drive design.

Same problem here with PF40 5HP and 7.5HP.
We are even worse off because of the environment the cabinets are in, they cannot be ventilated. And the ones that are ventilated, are area is so dusty and dirty the air filters clog after a couple of days.

PF525 drives for us are the same price if not a little cheaper, as a PF40 with the 22-COMM-E card, and the special cover that you need for the larger frame drives.

Plus, the PF500 series can do simple positioning with an encoder card and it has more features than the PF40. Also, as already mentioned, smaller footprint and can be stacked side by side.

AND! The power and control units are seperate, which is sort of pointless. I havnt been able to just swap a control unit to a new power unit and it just start right up. But, there is a usb port on the back of the control unit that will show up in your computer as a flash drive. There is a little program in there to import and export drive parameters.