Dropped a clanger

and lost the Bl**dy manual! Oh the grief I can cause myself. I bought this sometime last year, brand new boxed VFD. I HAD the manual, because I was reading it, but nowhere to be seen and God knows I have looked.

If some kind soul could help me out and try to identify what/make/brand/generic it is I would be extremely grateful. And just to confirm everyone's suspicions, I have forgotten where I bought it too......

graham.

Is it a Huanyang?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln0UW8RJVSI

its a Huanyang - see youtube video link below for set up instructions

**LINK**

hope this helps

Dave

For info - how much was it and where did you get it?

Looks as if this may be the manual if Dave +/- 40''' is right:

**LINK**

Email sent with manual.........

Edited By Involute Curve on 05/05/2015 16:13:49

Muzzer - i use a 4.5kw unit HY unit from fleabay, cost about £180 18 months ago

Dave

What can I tell you, faster than a fast thing and Shaun, you are a Gent.

Muzzer, not only did I lose the manual, but forgot where I had bought it BUT as with all things financial I distinctly remember paying £100 for it.

I bought it for a Hydrovane compressor but subsequently discovered that it would not work as the windings were well and truly buried then to my dismay I discovered it needed new vanes and was long out of production

On the bright side I am going to use it on my new lathe No, there is nothing wrong with the current setup and it is working perfectly but until you have experienced a 3 phase motor with a VFD you cannot begin to understand the transformation this brings about in any machine. Plus, I can stuff a big motor on it, you cannot beat big horsepower

graham.

VFD - Versatile Foot Drive. Yes you're right. Nothing like a good old Treadle.

Thanks for the manual link. I have one of these on my cnc router/engraver and it came with no manual for anything at all. It has been an 'interesting' experience setting up the cnc stuff, especially as the output from this vfd is so electrically noisy at low frequencies it causes the stepper motors to step without controller commands being sent.

Regards,

Richard

> VFD - Versatile Foot Drive. Yes you're right. Nothing like a good old Treadle

I thought he said it was manual not pedal...

Neil

That is quite interesting Richard because, since buying this and mentioning it to a friend, he has bought two and two big spindles and uses them on a two table CNC setup. He has never mentioned any problems but I am going to try to call him tomorrow and find out.

graham.

The cable to the spindle was unshielded when I got the machine, and at below 150 Hz as the motor slowed down, the steppers stepped. I checked & double checked and eventually came up with that correlation.

I have since replaced the cable with a high density braided cable and put in a choke. The electrical interference is now not great enough to step the motors, but I occasionally get a random effect on the controlling PC when it gets below 50Hz as the spindle is winding down. Every 3rd or fourth wind down on the speed, the pc is upset enough to loose the keyboard or mouse input and they need to be unplugged from their USB port and plugged back in. Every 10th wind down or so the PC is bothered enough to freeze & require a re-boot. It is irritating, but something I can live with.

Regards,

Richard

Maybe some opto-isolators would help?

I have just bought one of those for my laptop-to-Hi-Fi link and it is just terrific. No Buzz Hum or anything now. Well worth the money.

graham.

I have one of these Huanyang VFDs and whilst quite happy with it, it does have some downsides compared with well know brands.

When I got it I already knew that the Modbus communication (I think) is not usable but that does not matter on my lathe motor. Getting it configured initially was challenging as the manual is pretty poor. With help from forum members here it was soon up and running.

The first time I switched the power on nothing happened so I switched off and checked the wiring. I switched on a second time and again nothing happened. By nothing happening, I mean there seemed to be no response whatsoever, no noise, no lights, nothing! I then found out that I was not waiting long enough. From applying power to the display lighting up is probably 20 seconds. This is not a problem but its just unusual behaviour.

My second dislike was the audible noise from the cooling fan, Its quite loud and it runs continuously. I have fitted an electronic thermostat on the heatsink and its set to 50c. Now, the fan only runs very occasionally and probably has only come on a handful of times in the last three months. What is interesting is that I only hear the fan when I switch the motor off and then it only runs for 20 or 30 seconds before the temperature is below the setpoint.

The main problem I only discovered last weekend. Over the last few month my wife has had difficulty maintaining a stable WiFi connection but every time I investigate the problem has gone away. To cut a long story short, I never see the WiFi problem because 'I' don't use the Wifi and the lathe at the same time!

As mentioned earlier in this thread this VFD is electrically very noisy. The cable from the VFD to the motor is only 18" long although it not screened, nor is the 1m long mains lead. I have a mains filter which I will fit this weekend and report back.

Ian P

If I had the faintest idea what they were, it might. For all I know you could swallow them. I know so little about them I don't really know what questions I need to ask to find out more.

What are they? What do they do? How? That sort of thing.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited to add: Just spoken to an electrical engineer colleague and he was slightly confused. He seems to think that an opto-isolator acts as an electrical isolator that transmits data by optical signals. He does not understand how power could be put through one of these to a motor. Knowing as little as I do, I am even more baffled.

Edited By richardandtracy on 08/05/2015 09:42:20

Hi Richard,
An opto-isolator is just a infra red photo diode in the same package as an infra red photo transistor. When current is passed through the photo diode the light from it causes the photo transistor to conduct. There is no electrical connection between the diode and transistor. They are normally in the form of a dual in line or surface mount package which will contain one or more isolators. You could think of it as a fast low power relay. Regarding electrical interference from VFDs. ALL VFDs will produce interference particularly from the cable to the motor and the mains power lead to the VFD. It is good practice to use screened cable between the VFD and the motor and fit a mains filter CLOSE to the power input terminals of the VFD.  Arc Euro Trade sell screened cable by the metre and EMI filters. (In the section High Speed Spindles, Motors & Inverters.)

Les.

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 08/05/2015 08:47:09

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 08/05/2015 08:53:56

Resolving EMI issues can be a very tricky - I'm by no means expert in this, but have had to look into such issues related to VFDs in connection with my work.

Some of the cheaper VFDs are NOT rated for domestic use - they are rated for industrial use where it is expected that they'd be installed in a screened cabinet, and probably have additional filtering added on input and possibly output.

If you fit a filter in the supply to VFD it should be mounted as close as possible to the unit (as Les mentions above) and be mounted onto the metal backplane that the VFD is mounted on.

Screened cable to motor should ideally be attached with a proper RFI gland at the motor (hopefully the motor terminal box is not a plastic one!), at the inverter end a saddle clamp fixing the screening firmly to the backplane would be good - some makers will supply metal covers to screen the output connection terminals (again these should be bonded to the backplane). A simple wired earth connection will be almost useless at radios frequencies - something much better is required.

You may be able to reduce the base internal frequency used in the VFD (via a setting parameter) this should help with RFI, but possibly at the expense of audible noise from the drive.

Good luck!

Les,

Thanks for that link. It gives more clarity in one diagram to my simple mind than hundreds of posts would given how electronically illiterate I am. I am going to try first a ferrite ring around the mains cable (have one from a dead PC). This may work, if not I'll get one of those line filters. I'll also knock up an earthed galvanised box for the vfd to go in, and have one open side for access and cooling. The open side will point away from the computer, cnc and house.

I have a suspicion that the metal roof to my workshop is acting as a reflector for interference, which is likely not to be helping.

Regards,

Richard.

The last RFI problem I had was a mains powered LED spot light, pluged it in and it drowned out the workshop radio. Cure, I had a small isolating transformer (about 3"x3"x3", bingo, no noise.

Ian S C