VFD Parameter settings for Controller Card

[scottbot]

Hi All
I have a PRS Alpha with a 4HP HSD spindle and a Yaskawa V7-4X VFD. I just got the ShopBot Spindle Controller Card for it and can't get it to work.
Currently it locks up SB3 so bad that I have to shut everything down including the computer to get things running again.

What I need to know is what parameters do I need to change on the VFD to get it working.

I've looked on the little CD that came with the drive, I've read through the drive manual and I've checked the forum. The info wasn't on the forum and it seems that I'm not bright enough to find the info in the manual or CD. Oh yeah, I've run the little VFD simulator program that came on the CD too. Not clever enough to dig the info out of that either.

I'd sure appreciate the answer if any of you who have successfully set up the VFD Controller Card have it.

Thanks in advance.

Scott

[wberminio]

Scott

I have the same problem.
Your right everything locks up.
Haven't had time to find a resolve yet.
So far I just have it turned off.

[scottbot]

Erminio
Yeah it locks up good and hard.
I have mine unplugged too but I didn't spend $195 on a controller card to leave it unplugged.
I'll contact ShopBot support on Monday and post the fix for all to see when I get it working.

Scott

[jerry_stanek]

Let us know if you get it working as I was thinking of getting the controller for my spindle. Like you said I don't want to spend money on something that doesn't work.

[wberminio]

Scott

I haven't had the time to call Shopbot support about this.I'm sure they will help.
Let us know what you find out.

Erminio

[adrianm]

Are you running ver 3.5.6 of the software?

I'm thinking about getting one of these cards as well.

[scottbot]

I'm running version 3.6.5.
Others have this card and it works for them.
I'm pretty sure that it's just a matter of setting the required parameters using the control panel on the front of the VFD.

I'll let you know what the solution is as soon as I get it working.

Scott

[porscheman]

I purchased the spindle control board for a Delta VFD-Colombo spindle, but I'm pretty sure the Yaskawa installation process is highly similar. The board should have come with installation instructions (mine did), which includes the details on making the parameter changes on the VFD.

I found the following link, which is the instructions for the Yaskawa control board:

http://www.shopbottools.com/files/SBG00338080528SpindleControlBoardYaskawa.pdf

Page 9 appears to document the parameter changes you need to make on the VFD. My apologies if you've already tried those instructions without success.

Finally, I will note that I had very difficult time achieving reliable performance from my spindle board. I could communicate with it from the SB3 software, but after a while it would hang (though it never completely froze the PC). In the end, I was able to isolate the problem to the USB connection with the spindle board. It will NOT operate reliably if you attempt to extend the length of the supplied USB cable (which is 10', if I remember correctly). Beyond that distance, comm seems to get ratty (again, I'm no expert here). Also, my board would be very unreliable when connected via a powered USB hub to the PC, but seems fine when connected directly to a USB port on the PC.

Finally, the biggest hurdle I was able to finally overcome was to increase the length of the wire path between the PC and the VFD. My VFD is located about 25' from the PC, and as mentioned earlier, extending the USB segment was impossible. In the end, I extended the distance of the wire which runs from the spindle control board to the VFD terminals. This meant that I couldn't stow the spindle board inside the VFD cover plate, but once I extended that wire run, I've had totally reliable performance from the control board and software ever since.

I hope these suggestions help.

John

[scottbot]

Hi John,
Thanks for the suggestions.
I was running it through a powered USB hub so I tried connecting it directly to the computer.
Unfortunately that didn't help.

I did receive the installation instructions with my Controller Card but didn't actually find them to be all that helpful when it came time to program the VFD.
On page 8 of the instructions it states:
"The VFD must be programmed in order for the computer to communicate with the spindle. Consult the parameters that were included with the spindle for your specific Spindle configuration."
I remember getting some info about the spindle when I received my bot but I've looked all over and can't find them yet.

I had followed the instructions on page 9 and set parameter 153 to 1 but when things wouldn't work I tried setting it back to 0 to see if that would help. No joy there.
Currently, I have parameter 153 set to 1.

Unless I can find the parameters that came with the spindle it looks like I may have to wait until Monday to see if ShopBot Support has any suggestions.
Thank you all for your help.
I'll keep you posted.

Scott

[scottbot]

Hi All
I was looking for information on the Indexer last night on the ShopBot site and stumbled across a bunch of pdf's with the parameter settings for all the different VFD's that they sell.
I've downloaded the one for mine and will try it this morning.

I'll let you all know how it works.

Scott

[scottbot]

Fail.
Using the parameter document as my guide I entered the PRGM function on my VFD.
Before making any changes I made a complete list of what the parameter document said the values should be.
As I entered each parameter I noted on my list what the current values were. That way I could change it back if need be.
I had 5 parameter values that were different fr the ones one the list. I changed 4 of then but the 5th one was at a value of 9.0 and the list said it should be 100. The drive would only allow the parameter to be adjusted to s maximum of 18.0. So I left it at 9.0 but now I doubt the accuracy of this document.

After I made the changes I powered down the VFD and started it back up. Then I started the SB3 software but didn't plug the new controller card in yet.
Everything seemed to be working ok so I again turned of the VFD and shut down SB3. I plugged the controllers card in directly to my computer and started everything back up.

I started Windows Task Manager up too so I could keep an eye on things.
Everything seemed to be operating ok. Ok being the fact that nothing had locked up yet. So I ran my spindle warm up routine to see if it was going to be my lucky day.
Dang.
Not so.
About 30 seconds into the warm up routine Windows Task Manager reported that the Spindle Controller was not responding. So it's still not working.

The good news is that nothing locked up so I was able to shut things down normally and carry on.
So I'm getting closer and hope to report success within the next few days.

Scott

[scottbot]

Update.
Well its not working 100% yet but I'm a lot closer.
I started to think that, about a year ago, I had to get a USB hub because I couldn't get the Bot to run reliably without it. So I plugged the Bot back into the hub and gave things a try.
Much better.
I was able to start up now without any lock up problems. I could even change to spindle RPM by entering the desired value into the Spindle Control box and it would actually change the speed of the spindle. Woohoo!
Sooo close.

So now it was time to try my warm up routine to see how that worked.
I had 3 different RPM values with only a 5 second pause between each RPM change.
Before I started the warm up routine I manually set the RPM to a little less than the first RPM value.

When I ran the warm up routine it changed the RPM to the first value. After the 5 second pause it skipped past the second RPM value without changing the RPM. After the second 5 second pause it skipped past the last RPM value again without changing the RPM. The routine ended and shut the spindle down and THEN it changed the RPM to the final value??? I couldn't figure this one out so I shut it down in defeat hoping for a answer to this one from ShopBot support.

Once again ShopBot Support comes through.

It seems that some, but not all, people encounter RF interference with these spindle controller cards that requires some sort of filter to eliminate it. Frank at ShopBot suggested that I try running the same warm up routine but when it came time to actually start the spindle not to do it and see if the RPMs changed. Worked like a charm. I tried it a bunch of times and every time the RPM would change according to the routine. So that was good.
Just to punish myself I plugged the spindle controller back in and tried the warm up routine again. I know, I know but I had to try.
Anyhow the results were what you could expect. No go.

So tomorrow I'll give ShopBot support another call and see about this filter.

Don't forget that I did change the VFD parameters according to the document I downloaded from the ShopBot support page. Here's the link for the drive parameter documents:

http://www.shopbottools.com/documentation.htm

I'll let you know what I find out about the filter.

Scott

[srwtlc]

Scott,

I'll be interested in what you find out. I've been using the do-it-yourself setup with the RS285 board that Ryan P. used with his first spindle control setup. It worked great until a while ago when SB made some changes to the Spindle Control program and I then started getting some random errors every once in a while with a certain type of file that I run and the only way to get it working again was to shut down/restart the computer. I was never able to get it resolved and SB said that they may always have trouble communicating with that board now. They sent me one of their control boards and I've never been able to get it to work. I reported much of the same as what you have stated here, but never really heard back from anyone about it. I could change the rpm up and down without the spindle running but not with it running. To make things even stranger, I couldn't change the rpm with a file or with my warm-up routine at any time, spindle running or not.

I've had so much work to do this summer and haven't had time to mess with it, that I just gave up and went back to my RS485 board. Since some of the latest versions of SB3, I haven't had a problem with that setup with the exception that some files don't seem to allow more than one time of Shift +/- to change the rpm and then it gets stuck.

Maybe this fall I can get back to it again so I'll be interested in how the filter works out for you.

Scott

[scottbot]

I talked to Frank at ShopBot support today and he suggested that I mount the spindle control board as far away from the VFD as I could. So I got some wire and mounted the spindle control board outside the VFD housing about 5 feet away from the VFD.
It didn't make one bit of difference so it looks like I'll be seeing about that filter that Frank mentioned the other day. Today he told me it cost about $100. Dang.
I'll let you know if it works.

[frank134]

I have a new PRS Alpha with a 4HP HSD spindle and a Yaskawa V7-4X VFD. I just plug the card in and plug in the usb and it work find. Now I can change the speed when I bring up shopbot control. So far it work great. everything from my control box too the vfd too the computer is space less then one foot apart. I didn't find anything about setting any parameters.
are you sure the wiring is right?

[Gary Campbell]

Scott Head...
I had almost the exact same problem with my board when it was first installed. In my case, I had a dual spindle jumper wire installed and it was apparently picking up interference from inside the VFD. I cut away the extra wires and mine has worked flawlessly since.
Gary

[scottbot]

Update:
Now I'm trying to figure out if it is RF interference or electical interference. The recommended way to do that is to move the controller card around to various locations in the shop to see if I can find a place where it works. The goal is to avoid buying a costly power filter.

Frank. I've checked and double checked and yes the wiring is correct.

Gary. What extra wires?

Scott

[Gary Campbell]

Scott...
I was planning for a future second spindle. I received the harness for 2, the extra, but unattached wire for the second spindle was picking up interference inside the VFD, once removed... all is well. My point to note was virtually the same symptoms.
Gary