Variable speed drive not sure what to do with it.

[electronics-whiz]

A friend that teaches electrician classes at local college gave me this thing today when he was moving his office. I Guess nobody needed, or wanted I guess he figured I could find some use for it.

It's a Magnatek GPD 503. Here is a manual: http://igor.chudov.com/manuals/Yaskawa-GPD-503-Manual.pdf

He said he thought I could just put a wall cord on it for 120 and make it drive a 3 phase 120V motor.  The specs say 3phase like 300-400V.

If I can power it somehow on 120 I may be able to use it as a signal generator of some sort. He seemed to think it worked, but i don't know why they don't need when the deal with PLCs, etc like this. Makes me think has some issue, some reason they can't use, or it's really outdated.

If it's possible i'd at least like to test it, or see if his idea is even possible.

[NiHaoMike]

Depending on the size of the drive, it might be usable in DIY EVs.

[electronics-whiz]

I just pulled some specs off it. In AC 380-460V 50/60HZ 3Phase 14.9A. Output: 0-460V 0-400HZ 3Phase

Variable torque continuous 13.5A, constant torque 12A.

Model: DS316

[NiHaoMike]

That's about a 10kW drive. That's about the right size for a riding mower or go kart, but the high voltage makes it impractical to run from batteries at that power level. Best use I can think of (apart from selling it) is to run it off a voltage doubler from a 240V line, then run a 480V three phase motor such as large power tools or even a surplus 480V HVAC compressor.

[electronics-whiz]

I thought about the battery thing should this run on DC. For deep cycle batteries and putting like 25 in series you're probably looking 100-1500 LBs. It just don't seem practical. If i modified it so the SMPS in it would run on something else maybe it would run a smaller motor ok.

Seems to me if can get the logic to power you should be able to just use one or two poles. All it is is some logic, caps, some beefy transistors and a cooler.

[electronics-whiz]

I got to thinking today I know some people are making solid state tesla coils. If this would run it seems I could program it to make how ever many pulses I need then I don't need the spark gap rotary switch. Probably be more efficient too if can run at higher frequencies.