Rexroth IndraDrive Type Codes: Which Power Section, Control Section and Firmware to Order

An IndraDrive is not one part. It is a power section and a control section that were ordered separately, bolted together at the machine builder, and given two different type plates with two different R911 numbers. If you photograph one plate and send it to a supplier, you have described half of your drive. That is the single most common reason an IndraDrive replacement arrives and will not run.

This guide covers how to read a Rexroth IndraDrive type code, which control sections fit which power sections, why the firmware designation is a third separate order, and how the older Indramat TDM modules differ. If your drive is showing a fault rather than needing an order, the diagnosis side is a different job and the numbers on the display are where you start.

The families, in one table

Rexroth uses a three letter prefix to say what the box does before it says anything about size. Get the prefix right and the rest of the code narrows quickly.

Power section: reading an HCS03 code

Take the unit we currently hold, HCS03.1E-W0210-A-05-NNBN, R911344926. Read it in blocks. HCS03.1 is the family and hardware generation. E is the design version. W0210 is the current class, and it is the number that decides whether the drive can actually carry your motor. A-05 covers the mains connection variant. The trailing four characters describe fitted options such as the braking resistor and cooling arrangement.

Two units of the same current class with different trailing characters are usually interchangeable in a mechanical sense and not always in an electrical one. If your machine relies on an internal braking resistor, a unit built without one will trip on the first hard deceleration. That is worth thirty seconds of checking against the plate you are replacing.

Control section: the part that is actually your axis

Control sections come in performance classes. BASIC covers general motion. ADVANCED adds the interfaces and functionality needed for tighter synchronisation and drive integrated logic. The two are not swappable in either direction without the matching firmware, and the firmware performance letter has to agree with the hardware class.

We hold two examples that show the range. CSH01.3C-PL-ENS-NNN-CCD-NN-S-NN-FW, R911327682 is an ADVANCED section, and CSB01.1C-PL-ENS-MA1-NN-S-NN-FW, R911307297 is a configurable BASIC one. In both codes the group straight after the device type is the master communication. You will see SE for sercos, PB for PROFIBUS, ET for MultiEthernet, AN for analog and PL in that slot. The ENS that follows is the encoder evaluation option. Everything after that describes the optional modules plugged into the remaining slots, plus the safety and firmware positions, and those groups are where guesswork starts to get expensive. Check them against the type code diagram in the project planning manual for control sections, document DOK-INDRV-CSH-PR08-EN-P, material number R911295012.

The fitment rule is simpler than the codes suggest.

Buyers get caught by that second row when a rack holds a mixture of HMS and HMD inverters and somebody orders one control section for what looked like identical slots. Count the axes per slot before you count the slots.

Firmware is a third part number

The firmware designation looks like FWA-INDRV*-MPB-18VRS-D5-1-NNN-NN. The three letters after INDRV* are the important part. MPB is single axis with BASIC performance, MPD is double axis with BASIC performance, and MPH is single axis with ADVANCED performance. Later generations added MPC, MPE and MPM. The two digits before VRS are the version, and versions from MPx-02 through to the current releases are all still out in the field.

Version matters more than people expect. A control section running an older firmware version will not accept a parameter set exported from a newer one, and functional packages that a machine relies on are enabled per version. Before you order anything, read the firmware version off the drive itself rather than off the box, because a used unit has whatever the previous machine left on it.

On the type plate itself, the production week field is worth knowing. It reads as year and week, so 11W36 is week 36 of 2011. When a seller describes a drive as recent and the plate says 04W12, you now know more than the listing told you.

The programming module is the axis, not the drive

This is the piece of the job that saves an afternoon. IndraDrive controllers carry a programming module that holds the firmware and the parameter set. Rexroth's own device replacement procedure is to move the programming module from the failed unit onto the replacement, not to reconfigure the replacement from scratch. Power down, unplug the module from the old controller, plug it into the new one. The axis comes back with its own identity.

Which means two things when you buy used. A replacement controller supplied without a programming module is not a fault in the listing, it is normal, because you are expected to fit your own. And if your old module is physically destroyed, you need the machine builder's parameter archive, and if nobody in the building has one you are looking at a commissioning job rather than a swap. Take that archive off every IndraDrive machine you own before you need it.

Older Indramat: TDM, and the module that makes it work

Plenty of European machine tools are still running the generation before IndraDrive. The TDM servo drive modules are single axis AC servo controllers that run from a 300 VDC link, so they are never standalone. They need a supply module, typically a TVM, TVD or KDV, and they talk to it over a ribbon cable in the rack. A TDM on its own on a bench does nothing.

Their type codes are refreshingly literal. In TDM 1.2-30-300-W0, which we hold four of, 1.2 is the series and model, 30 is the current rating in amps, 300 is the DC bus voltage, and W0 or W1 is the cooling variant. Note the current field: catalogues and plates write it as both 030 and 30 for the same drive. Search both ways or you will conclude a part is unobtainable when three are sitting on a shelf in Rome.

The critical detail on a TDM is the plug-in programming module, the small card with a MOD number on it. It stores the operating parameters for that specific motor and drive combination. A bare TDM of the correct type code is still the wrong drive for your machine until your own MOD module is in it. Fitting a module from a different motor pairing is how people lose a motor. Same principle as the IndraDrive programming module, thirty years earlier.

We also carry the surrounding hardware these systems need, including the Rexroth control module MNR 1671025000 and the IndraControl VCH02.2NNN-000RS operator terminal. Full range in the Rexroth and Indramat collection and the wider drives and servos collection.

Quick answers

What is the difference between a power section and a control section?

The power section is the housing, the mains or DC bus connection and the output stage that drives the motor. The control section is a card that plugs into it and carries the processor, the firmware, the encoder interface and the fieldbus. Both have their own type code and their own R911 material number, and both have to be correct for the drive to run. When you quote a drive to a supplier, send both plates.

Can I fit a CSH01 ADVANCED control section instead of a CSB01 BASIC one?

Mechanically it will plug into the same power sections, so the swap looks harmless. Functionally you have changed performance class, which means you also need firmware of the matching class, and the parameter set from a BASIC drive does not transfer cleanly. Treat it as a rebuild of that axis rather than a like for like replacement. If the goal is simply to get a machine running again, match what you had.

Where do I find the R911 number if the plate is unreadable?

Read the type code instead. The R911 number is a one to one shorthand for a full type code, so a complete type code identifies the part just as precisely. If both are gone, the machine builder's parts list or the drive's own parameter display will tell you what is fitted. Do not guess from a similar unit in the next slot, because racks are commonly built from more than one variant.

Is a used IndraDrive worth buying instead of a repair?

Usually yes on the control section and often yes on the power section. Rexroth repairs are priced per unit with a lead time, and the older HCS02 and HMS01 hardware is past the point where a component level repair is economic for anyone but a specialist. Where a repair does win is when your programming module is intact and the failure is a known one such as a fan or a DC bus capacitor. Our used industrial parts buying guide covers what to ask for.

My drive throws a fault the moment the DC bus comes up. Where do I start?

Read the fault code off the display before you touch the hardware, and check whether the drive is reporting its own fault or reporting a missing encoder or a bus problem. Encoder faults on IndraDrive point at the feedback path rather than the drive, and the same diagnostic order applies as on any servo system, which our encoder problems guide works through. Fault code structure across drive families follows similar logic, and the SINAMICS fault codes guide is a useful comparison.

Before you order, in order

1. Photograph both type plates, the power section and the control section, with the R911 numbers legible.
2. Write down the full type code of each, including every trailing character. NNBN and NNBV are not the same drive.
3. Read the firmware version off the drive display or the commissioning tool, not off the packaging.
4. Note the production week from the plate so you know what generation you are matching.
5. Confirm whether your rack is HCS, or HMV with HMS and HMD inverters, before choosing a control section.
6. Export the parameter set if the drive still powers up at all. Do this first, not last.
7. Check that your programming module is present and undamaged, and plan to move it across.
8. Ask the supplier explicitly whether the control section is included. Assume it is not until told otherwise.

Related reading on Samonde

• SINAMICS fault codes: common causes and fixes
• Schneider Altivar fault codes: common faults and fixes
• SIMODRIVE 611 troubleshooting
• Heidenhain encoder problems: error messages and fixes
• Used industrial parts buying guide

Rexroth's type codes look hostile because they are configuration lists rather than part names, and a configuration list is only useful if you copy all of it. The engineers who get their machines back quickest are the ones who treat the two plates and the programming module as three separate things to account for, and who took a parameter archive on a quiet Tuesday months before the drive failed. Everything else is reading the code carefully and refusing to fill in the characters you cannot see.