1.4.1 SOMANET Braking Chopper 48V 500W
1.4.1.1 Overview
SOMANET Braking Chopper 48V 500W is a braking chopper (also referred to as shunt or regen board) that can
be used in conjunction with other SOMANET products, in particular SOMANET drives. It is used for consuming
excessive energy that may appear on the DC bus while a motor decelerates a load. The Braking Chopper 48V
500W is capable of dissipating 430 W peak power and up to 90 W continuous power if adequate cooling is
provided.
When the motor is used for actively decelerating a load, electrical power will be regenerated. If the drives are
supplied by a standard power supply (with no recuperation function), such regenerative operating points will
cause overvoltage on the DC circuit, thus either the drive or the power supply will shut down.
To prevent this from happening, a shunt circuit is needed to burn this recuperated energy.
More information about regenerative energy and how to use Braking Choppers can be found in our System
integration guide.