When you get the call, “The motor won’t start,” you’d best have a logical and systematic plan in place to approach the problem. “Easter egging” just doesn’t work unless you happen to be very lucky!

It is often necessary for persons other than licensed electricians to perform minimal electrical work in a commercial or industrial facility. This work must be performed in the same safe manner as all ...

Guest columnist Alfred Hesener, European marketing director at Fairchild Semiconductor, describes how good design of power switches can help reduce losses in motor control circuits. Energy-saving ...

Motor control and drives are fundamental in many applications, as they allow a high degree of accuracy, which in turn translates into lower costs and greater efficiency. The vital function performed ...

The current-mode or peak-current-regulating switching converter is a familiar, almost dominant, power supply circuit consisting of few parts and is usually designed with “cookbook” procedures from PWM ...

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we presented a 3-phase, 480VAC motor circuit with its associated controls (Figure). We stepped through a logical, systematic approach to troubleshoot the main power ...