A confession, down the rabbit hole and European tools on USA power (Mafell LO55)

Very reasonable suggestion. However, I did confirm that the shaft spins freely before trying to power it on.
 
JimH2 said:
I have made my own 8” adaptor cords for my 110v UK tools. No issues whatsoever. I know I could cut the plug end off and replace but my adapter cord does the trick. You can find the female UK plugs on eBay that connect to their power tools. They are yellows and watertight.

I just bought the LO 55 but have not had time to make an adapter. Maybe later this week.

I'm afraid you might be in for a disappointment with the LO55. If you do by some magic get it to function with your adapter in the USA please let me know how.
 
If i remember correctly Amazon sells vfds, think one brand was Ato, with single phase output. There were 120 and 240 input versions. Probably at least a couple hundred dollars.
 
It seems quite implausible that the device's electronics are so exquisitely sensitive to line frequency that it would refuse to run on 60 Hz. Perhaps that's why they haven't released this router in the USA after quite a long time? It's a really cool tool and I suspect would become popular here very quickly as compared to the equivalent router from Festool, etc.

I have tried everything I can think of to test other things. Tried with a bit, without a bit, with a different bit. The locking mechanism is satisfyingly solid and distinct so I don't think that is the issue (quite amazing actually). The shaft spins freely. I've searched everywhere for a safety interlock but there does not appear to be one. It's a very simple to run machine apparently with very few controls. I suspect if it was that fiddly they would be getting calls every day from end users who couldn't turn on their router for the first time. I haven't tried pushing the bit into the work surface and trying to turn it on as yet. I agree that I don't know how it senses that but perhaps its just sensing that more torque is needed to start the motor than should be appropriate if the bit was free.

Looking forward I have four options I can think up and several are drifting into the absurd. However, I'm pretty obsessed with figuring this thing out (a personal failing).

1. Give up and return the router and hope that they someday release in north america with power requirements I don't have to Frankenstein up.

2. Buy a 230V 50Hz power invertor that plugs into a DC outlet in the car and see if the thing runs. That would cost about $200. This would answer the question but not provide a long term usability solution unless I want to always use the router outside the garage (LOL). I'm not sure if it would be practical to connect some sort of AC -> DC power supply that takes 110 or 240v 60Hz power from the wall and converts to DC 12 or 24V and then pass that back into the power invertor to generate 230V 50 Hz.... I'm not putting solar power panels on my roof to just run a router!

3. There is a rather expensive out of the box solution available on amazon that takes 110V 60Hz line power and both steps up the voltage and converts to 50 Hz -> pricey at about $1400 which is basically close to two times the cost of the router. Given that these things are so rare, I'm a bit reluctant to do that just to prove a point although it would provide a long term solution to running this thing. If I had other European tools that required this silliness it might be worth it but I don't.

4. There are single phase to single phase VFDs that exist and cost in the $200 - $500 range that theoretically should be able to do this for 1/3 the price but of course nobody is trying to do this and I'm starting to accumulate worthless electrical equipment and supplies that I don't need to figure this out... I've wired up VFDs before from single phase to 3 phase motors and that was easy as pie so I suspect this also wouldn't be hard. I converted a 3 phase blum hinge machine to a single phase machine with no problem. Can't seem to find any documentation on the web of anyone trying to do this before with a single phase to single phase for a tool rather than a motor. Clearly I'm well out in the weeds of stupidity here with this project....

Any other ideas?

R
Richard
 
[member=5799]RoboDoc[/member] - I just confirmed I have the same issue as you. Looking in the manual all red lights means 1 of 4 things and one of them is a restart protection failure. You probably know, but to get all red to display you have to hold the power trigger for several seconds and then all LED's will go red. I am not giving up yet. I like the idea of the AC -> DC -> AC @50Hz concept. I  will give it a go and if it works, I can pack it all into a customized systainer with the US power cord connection and Euro outlets. Any recommendations for the two components for the final setup? Any thoughts on this for a test?

I did find this RV Inverter on Amazon.
 
Here is someone selling the solution as a package of components on eBay. Limited to 200 watts so it will not work, but still an interesting find.
 
You could also possibly use a bog standard 110v 1 phase input to 220v 3 phase output VFD, and put a single phase 1:1 transformer on the output to get your 220v @ 50hz?
 
[member=652]JimH2[/member] thanks for that information! It's extremely helpful. Seems like this eliminates the "router unit is faulty" hypothesis as we are both getting the same result. I did explore a large range of power inverters both on amazon and Ali Express. On the Chinese site there are a ton of power inverters that claim 5000 watts, etc. As I understand it, though, if you are going to be going through a 12 V DC bridge that is going to be pulling a lot of amps for an 1100 watt router with likely a startup surge. Might be possible of course. I'm not sure about the AC->DC part of that equation rather than using a battery or connecting to a solar setup (which is basically a big battery). Finding an external AC->DC adapter that would provide sufficient power seems like the major stumbling block.

In reviewing the manual for the steady red lights with trigger I think we have eliminated at least 3 of the 4 possibilities. It is clearly not restart protection, Cooldown mode completed or excess temperature since the motor has never been started. That leaves "blocking switch-off" which is basically undefined in the manual and Mafell has not been forthcoming with an explanation for that one by email.

I'm going to go ahead and rent some electric test equipment and we will get the answer one way or another.
 
I have Dewalt SCMS that works on (2) batteries or a module that covers both battery mounting blocks and plugs in. Is the AC being converted to DC to run the saw when being plugged in? The AC module is about the size of two battery packs.

I did come up with a slightly different approach although very expensive:

Festool PowerStation

Looking at the manual for it there is no reason it would not work. Power input is 120V/240V at 50Hz/60Hz and output is 230V @ 50Hz. At €3000 it is not practical.
 
JimH2 said:
Here is someone selling the solution as a package of components on eBay. Limited to 200 watts so it will not work, but still an interesting find.
Above I have posted a link to a complete 12V/car battery to 230V @1300W (2600W peak) sine-wave inverter unit for $50.

The reason I posted it is precisely because at $50 it is justifiable as a "good to have" accessory for the price. Even the 1000W unit @ $35 is probably good-enough for the LO55.

There are many makers and sellers of similar units, was just a quick-search example.

The point is these inverters are mass-produced for RVs hence they are by far the cheapest one can get clean AC power. One can probably even find one with a selectable 120/230V voltage.

mino said:
The easiest for clean 230V power source is to do DC-to-AC conversion.
...

From the quick & dirty folks:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007707286488.html

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JimH2 said:
I have Dewalt SCMS that works on (2) batteries or a module that covers both battery mounting blocks and plugs in. Is the AC being converted to DC to run the saw when being plugged in? The AC module is about the size of two battery packs.

I did come up with a slightly different approach although very expensive:

Festool PowerStation

Looking at the manual for it there is no reason it would not work. Power input is 120V/240V at 50Hz/60Hz and output is 230V @ 50Hz. At €3000 it is not practical.
You are much better off building a small "solar system" without the solar part instead of the PowerStation for shop/home energy backup need. Thanks to the solar boom these things are now a commodity and the prices are very reasonable.

For that a high-quality $200 24/48V charger, two (24V) or four (48V) 12V solar batteries at $100 each and $500 for a pro solar/continuous use inverter. Even with the relatively high-end off-the-shelf kit you are looking at $1000 for equivalent capacity (not peak power) the PowerStation provides. And as individual components, easily replaceable/upgradeable. Even with LifePO4 batteries for a portable/mobile setup, you end up with well under $1500 total.

The PoweStation is a beast with its 11.000W of peak power in a very small package. But I cannot imagine it justifying it for a hobby user with mostly stationary needs. That is beside it never getting UL certified for professional use in US ...
 
I think it's a real shame when someone takes time out of his day to post something light-hearted to try and bring a smile to everyone's day - only for that post to be totally blanked with 100% radio silence. Sadly, it's a consistent and seemingly-standard occurrence on here - us Brits call it being 'po-faced'. Maybe it's down to the culture. Maybe it's true that US citizens have no concept of the Brit sense of irony. Maybe you thought that the horrible 'my best work' routing job in my joke post above was actually real? Take a look at my professional work in 'Member Projects'. I've worked wood for a living now for 38 years.

What a miserable, self-obsessed, dour and humourless place the FOG has become. We're hacking lumps of timber about using fancy tools. We're not fixing global warming, saving the planet's starving millions, curing cancer, stopping wars, or reversing a century of toxic pollution.

Lighten up, stop taking yourselves so seriously - and smile once in awhile. You'll feel so much better when you do.
 
woodbutcherbower said:
I think it's a real shame when someone takes time out of his day to post something light-hearted to try and bring a smile to everyone's day - only for that post to be totally blanked with 100% radio silence. Sadly, it's a consistent and seemingly-standard occurrence on here - us Brits call it being 'po-faced'. Maybe it's down to the culture. Maybe it's true that US citizens have no concept of the Brit sense of irony. Maybe you thought that the horrible 'my best work' routing job in my joke post above was actually real? Take a look at my professional work in 'Member Projects'. I've worked wood for a living now for 38 years.

What a miserable, self-obsessed, dour and humourless place the FOG has become. We're hacking lumps of timber about using fancy tools. We're not fixing global warming, saving the planet's starving millions, curing cancer, stopping wars, or reversing a century of toxic pollution.

Lighten up, stop taking yourselves so seriously - and smile once in awhile. You'll feel so much better when you do.

As an Aussie we survive on a diet of sarcasm and humour, so while I may not have responded specifically to it, I certainly personally took it in the good natured spirit it was posted in, and fully agree people do often need to lighten up.
 
woodbutcherbower said:
I think it's a real shame when someone takes time out of his day to post something light-hearted to try and bring a smile to everyone's day - only for that post to be totally blanked with 100% radio silence. Sadly, it's a consistent and seemingly-standard occurrence on here - us Brits call it being 'po-faced'. Maybe it's down to the culture. Maybe it's true that US citizens have no concept of the Brit sense of irony. Maybe you thought that the horrible 'my best work' routing job in my joke post above was actually real? Take a look at my professional work in 'Member Projects'. I've worked wood for a living now for 38 years.

What a miserable, self-obsessed, dour and humourless place the FOG has become. We're hacking lumps of timber about using fancy tools. We're not fixing global warming, saving the planet's starving millions, curing cancer, stopping wars, or reversing a century of toxic pollution.

Lighten up, stop taking yourselves so seriously - and smile once in awhile. You'll feel so much better when you do.

I looked at it and noted it added nothing to the thread other than noting it was funny, but not worth commenting on. I don't know what I could have added and I am sure that is why others did not follow up.
 
That one is on me concerning the funny post. I did chuckle when I saw it and got the meta-message that we were taking ourselves too seriously. I should have left a comment but I was so focused on cracking this problem... Always appreciate some humor. I don't think that the fact that you didn't get a big response was a sign that the forum is a dour and miserable place. Everyone was just a bit focused on the problem at hand and your post was a bit of a swing off into a different direction out of the blue. More power to you. It did give me some bad flashbacks about router mishaps from the past!

I don't think us US citizens have a problem with irony. Just look at our political decisions of late...
 
RoboDoc said:
I don't think us US citizens have a problem with irony. Just look at our political decisions of late...

We all wish that was just irony...

[member=75780]woodbutcherbower[/member] ...it's the Canadians that don't get irony I think, or certainly this one :


...back to the OP's question - not being in the US I can't help with your specific problem. As far as I am aware all the Mafell 230v motors are universal and run on 50Hz or 60Hz.

A solar or solarless battery inverter setup will work. I run two, a 2x 2kw / 2kwh setup in the main work van (full roof solar) , all my Mafell's except the biggest two over 2kw run on that no problem; second is a solarless 3,6kw (7,2kw peak) / 9,6kwh setup for the workshop - I can work through extended power cuts - all my Mafell's work on that.

Many of the solar generators you can buy in Europe (ecopower, bluetti, etc)  you can set the output to the voltage and frequency required. You'd have to check what the US models can do, or if you'd need to import.

Maybe an expensive solution to just run a couple of tools, but I'm pretty sure you'd find many more uses for it once you have it, as I have.
 
Fourmi said:
[member=75780]woodbutcherbower[/member] ...it's the Canadians that don't get irony I think, or certainly this one :


Still....sensational talent though! ;- )
 
I should have a definitive answer on this issue next week when my electrical test equipment arrives. We aren't going to leave this one open....back to you then.

 
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