# Heatsink fault



## cbruce73401

On a 300 A well I take care of the P-Panel has a vfd that is shutting down because of a heatsink fault. There are 2 fans on the back blowing on the bus and one on the front blowing on the rest of the equipment. It shows a heatsink fault even when it gets below freezing. It's -2 degrees right now. I put a 2 kva transformer on it to install a thermostat, normally open relay and a small space heater so that the fans shut off when the heater is on. First the heater and fans would blow at the same time but the fault would still show. It worked great for a week now its back to the same. It's a Vector IV, anybody ever have a similar problem?


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## JRaef

cbruce73401 said:


> On a 300 A well I take care of the P-Panel has a vfd that is shutting down because of a heatsink fault. There are 2 fans on the back blowing on the bus and one on the front blowing on the rest of the equipment. It shows a heatsink fault even when it gets below freezing. It's -2 degrees right now. I put a 2 kva transformer on it to install a thermostat, normally open relay and a small space heater so that the fans shut off when the heater is on. First the heater and fans would blow at the same time but the fault would still show. It worked great for a week now its back to the same. It's a Vector IV, anybody ever have a similar problem?


Never heard of "Vector IV" so can't help there. Most drives I've worked on have a temerature sensor on the heatsink, but they report it to the microprocessor as a Drive Over Temperature Fault. So your guess about the "Heat Sink Fault" being about temperature would seem logical, but who knows? Maybe they are monitoring the heat sing temp for cold as well. Allowing your VFD to power up at below freezing runs the risk of having electrolytic capacitors freeze. If they do, and you energize them, I have seen them explode! For applications like that I would put a second thermostat on the heat sinks and control a line input contactor that only allows power to be applied after the heat sink was above 40F. So maybe they didn't take it to that extreme and give you the equivalent of an "idiot light" that tells you why the caps just exploded, but that just seems pointless. This is something you may need to take up with the mfr.


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## MDShunk

Heatsink fault normally means the fans died or the fans/heatsink are clogged with dust. If that's not the case, consider replacing the PTC or Klixon switch.


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## mikeh32

I know jack **** about this, but i do know about heatsinks and computers.

Do these heatsinks go on a chip, or is this for a power supply?

Bad thermal paste comes to mind if this is on a chip


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## MDShunk

mikeh32 said:


> I know jack **** about this, but i do know about heatsinks and computers.
> 
> Do these heatsinks go on a chip, or is this for a power supply?
> 
> Bad thermal paste comes to mind if this is on a chip


For a drive, 75% of the chassis is the heat sink.


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## mikeh32

MDShunk said:


> For a drive, 75% of the chassis is the heat sink.


do you have a picture of this? 

we dont get to see this stuff as a c card.


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## JRaef

mikeh32 said:


> do you have a picture of this?
> 
> we dont get to see this stuff as a c card.


Hard to find something with a scalable reference, but this is the power chassis of a 400HP Siemens VFD, a 300HP as the OP has would be about the same.








The heat sink would be on side of that module (the person's left side), between his hands.


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## John Valdes

MDShunk said:


> Heatsink fault normally means the fans died or the fans/heatsink are clogged with dust. If that's not the case, consider replacing the PTC or Klixon switch.


Klixon switches are usually reserved for internal motor OL. I have not seen a Klixon on a drive, ever. Its usually a Thermocouple or RTD. Three wire.



mikeh32 said:


> I know jack **** about this, but i do know about heatsinks and computers.
> 
> Do these heatsinks go on a chip, or is this for a power supply?
> 
> Bad thermal paste comes to mind if this is on a chip


The sensor is attached to the heat sink (not on a chip) which is the aluminum back plane of most controls. Do not confuse it with the braking resistor also located on the heat sink.

OP. If the temperature is correct and the drive continues to fault on "heat sink over temp" find the parameter that may be available to turn off the function. If you can disable the function and it runs without further issue, just replace the sensor. If you cannot turn off the function, order a new sensor today. Make sure you order the sensor from the drive manufacturer as the connector may be special to that particular board.
Oh, Go into the program and see what the actual heat sink temp is. This will tell you if you have a heat issue or a control issue.


Make sure all fans are working and clean. Same for the heat sink.


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## Jlarson

I'd start by cleaning it out with compressed air then make sure all the fans are running then I'd measure the heatsink temp with my DMM or thermometer and see if my readings match the readings on the drive's HMI. If they don't match it's probably time for a new sensor.


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## varmit

I have seen this fault show up on AB drives and not have anything to do with the heat sink. The processor/ IO section had failed. Often times the fault, as explained in the drive documentation, and reality, do not match. Then trial and error comes into play.


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## CJE

MDShunk said:


> Heatsink fault normally means the fans died or the fans/heatsink are clogged with dust. If that's not the case, consider replacing the PTC or Klixon switch.


I had a AB 1336 mounted against the wall that was failing on heatsink temp. Tried blowing it out with compressed air- no go, same problem. Fins looked clean from above and as far down as I could get my little led flex light. Ended up pulling the fan out and the bottom of the fins were matted with dust/cobwebs and a couple of little bird feathers. It looked almost like a piece of fiberglass furnace filter. It was woven almost perfectly. Peeled that out, put fan back in, no more problem.


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## emmanueliumtarimz

I was trying to press E but the fault do not disppear and screen is start to blink😕


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## backstay

emmanueliumtarimz said:


> I was trying to press E but the fault do not disppear and screen is start to blink😕


You are in an 11 year old thread. We don’t know what you are talking about.


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## Peewee0413

backstay said:


> You are in an 11 year old thread. We don’t know what you are talking about.


Speaking of old threads. I'm on Tapatalk, and I keep getting updates on old threads on ET.... I reported to them I'm not getting notifications on any of my forums...They fixed it, but I don't care about old stuff...

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk


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## emmanueliumtarimz

backstay said:


> You are in an 11 year old thread. We don’t know what you are talking about.


Sorry but I was talking about heatsink alarm


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## backstay

emmanueliumtarimz said:


> Sorry but I was talking about heatsink alarm


On what?


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## Almost Retired

emmanueliumtarimz said:


> Sorry but I was talking about heatsink alarm


my friend if you want advice from us
you must give us all of the information you have concerning the driving and driven machines 
we are not there, we cannot look at it, we cannot take measurements on it


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## glen1971

Almost Retired said:


> my friend if you want advice from us
> you must give us all of the information you have concerning the driving and driven machines
> we are not there, we cannot look at it, we cannot take measurements on it


Since the OP never made a follow-up post, I'm guessing after 11 years the drive has either been set-up on a proper PM program, failed and been or replaced, or it has been ignored.


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## Almost Retired

glen1971 said:


> Since the OP never made a follow-up post, I'm guessing after 11 years the drive has either been set-up on a proper PM program, failed and been or replaced, or it has been ignored.


i was replying to post #12 and 15 of jly 18 2022


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## glen1971

Almost Retired said:


> i was replying to post #12 and 15 of jly 18 2022


Yup, I know.


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