New VFD Install

[starburst]

Hello All,
Can't remember the last time I posted but this is my go-to forum for help of all kinds! I really appreciate all of you!

I am just completing my first VFD install on my old Jet 16 milling machine. Probably cost more than the mill, oh well. Anyway I would never have got through it without this forum. I've attached a couple of pictures. Thanks to ALL!

 

[wachuko]

Wow!! That looks like it took some work. But it all looks so nice and tidy.

You must feel great after a job well done!!

 

[markba633csi]

Very clean install- what's your first milling project?
-M

 

[starburst]

The first project will be to mill a bracket to hold the tach sensor above the front pulley. There is a small magnet that gets mounted on the pulley.
After that I'm not sure, whatever comes up. The main reason I did this project is that my shoulders are shot and changing the belts is painful. This means I will hardly ever need to change them again!

 

[Tomzo]

That is awesome! Most impressive!

I am planning a VFD upgrade on my HF clone of this mill. I am reading through a bunch of posts here and watching YouTube videos to finalize the configuration of the components, controls, etc and wondered if you had any wiring diagrams you might be able to share. My plan is to include the following:

- Din mounted fast acting fuses on input power
- Din mounted contactor for e-stop
- Forward/reverse control using either existing drum switch or new selector switch
- potentiometer for speed control
- optional tachometer

I am thinking I will put the momentary "on" switch on the enclosure door to turn on the VFD and am wrestling with whether to put the e-stop on the enclosure or on a panel at the front of the mill (I replaced the quill scale up front with DRO and have a blank metal plate there now). If the e-stop is on the panel I might have to reach around something that has gone wrong to get to it, so I am leaning towards having it up front. In normal operations I would stop the rotation using the direction switch as that would just stop the motor and not kill power to the VFD (excessive cycling is not good for those devices), but if you know what hits the fan I want to be able to hit the big red button and back away.

The precise wiring of the e-stop is one of the things that is unclear to me. Where does the momentary switch that tells the contactor to latch draw from - one of the 120V legs of the 220V circuit or a lower voltage source?

I see you have what appears to be an EMI filter inline between the source power and the VFD - I am considering that as well as my TouchDRO will likely not like a bunch of noise.

I know I am asking a lot, but do you have a list of the components you used? There are so many different varieties out there and while there are some posts here that have them some are very old and finding components that were prevalent 10 years ago can be tricky today.

Anyway, your controls look awesome - thanks for sharing!

Tom

 

[Firebrick43]

Good looking job starburst! Go to an ax belt and everything will be top notch!

Looks like power lift on Z axis?

That is awesome! Most impressive!

I am planning a VFD upgrade on my HF clone of this mill. I am reading through a bunch of posts here and watching YouTube videos to finalize the configuration of the components, controls, etc and wondered if you had any wiring diagrams you might be able to share. My plan is to include the following:

- Din mounted fast acting fuses on input power
- Din mounted contactor for e-stop
- Forward/reverse control using either existing drum switch or new selector switch
- potentiometer for speed control
- optional tachometer

I am thinking I will put the momentary "on" switch on the enclosure door to turn on the VFD and am wrestling with whether to put the e-stop on the enclosure or on a panel at the front of the mill (I replaced the quill scale up front with DRO and have a blank metal plate there now). If the e-stop is on the panel I might have to reach around something that has gone wrong to get to it, so I am leaning towards having it up front. In normal operations I would stop the rotation using the direction switch as that would just stop the motor and not kill power to the VFD (excessive cycling is not good for those devices), but if you know what hits the fan I want to be able to hit the big red button and back away.

The precise wiring of the e-stop is one of the things that is unclear to me. Where does the momentary switch that tells the contactor to latch draw from - one of the 120V legs of the 220V circuit or a lower voltage source?

I see you have what appears to be an EMI filter inline between the source power and the VFD - I am considering that as well as my TouchDRO will likely not like a bunch of noise.

I know I am asking a lot, but do you have a list of the components you used? There are so many different varieties out there and while there are some posts here that have them some are very old and finding components that were prevalent 10 years ago can be tricky today.

Anyway, your controls look awesome - thanks for sharing!

Tom

Tom, you don't have to have e stop contactor. Every VFD that I have used allows wiring the E stop switch directly to the VFD. IF you do use a contactor, it need to go before the VFD and kill power that way. Down side is you can loose some of your breaking then. Never open the wires between the VFD and the motor, it will fry the VFD. A lot of commercial machines use the contactor for most functions and at the same time open the e stop circuit integral to the VFD so it can stop with braking.

And do put the e stop at the operator panel. That is where it belongs.

 

[markba633csi]

I was thinking the same thing- you can E-stop the VFD directly, no contactor needed.

 

[Tomzo]

Tom, you don't have to have e stop contactor. Every VFD that I have used allows wiring the E stop switch directly to the VFD. IF you do use a contactor, it need to go before the VFD and kill power that way. Down side is you can loose some of your breaking then. Never open the wires between the VFD and the motor, it will fry the VFD. A lot of commercial machines use the contactor for most functions and at the same time open the e stop circuit integral to the VFD so it can stop with braking.

And do put the e stop at the operator panel. That is where it belongs.

Thanks FireBrick43 - I had planned to use an estop to kill power to the VFD assuming that if my other stop commands to the VFD were not working I had a quick way to kill power to the whole system. It would not go between the VFD and the motor, but be something akin to how Clough42 set up the VFD on his lathe in a video from a few years ago.

I am looking at the Huanyang VFD that seems pretty popular and from reading (interpreting?) the manual I see how to stop the motor - or I guess more accurately take away the run signal. This would trigger the braking system in normal operations it seems to me. I am not planning on a braking resistor right now but that might be something for the future.

I have a pretty good idea in my mind on how this should be wired and was just trying to see if someone had already drawn all this up so I could cross check how I see it being wired against someone's drawing from a working system.

I was thinking the same thing- you can E-stop the VFD directly, no contactor needed.

Perhaps it is my lack of familiarity with 220V circuits in this application, but I thought a contactor would allow me to kill both hot legs with one signal wire. If pressed, the estop would cut the current to the coil that holds the contactor closed and that would release all the legs of the 220V circuit going to the VFD. This also prevents the VFD from getting power again until a momentary switch re-engages the coil, thus requiring me to both reset the estop and press the momentary switch to get things going again. Here is a screen shot of how Clough42 set it up.

 

[markba633csi]

It may actually be detrimental to kill the input power while the vfd is driving a load. Depends on the manufacturer.

 

[Tomzo]

It may actually be detrimental to kill the input power while the vfd is driving a load. Depends on the manufacturer.

Yes - that would not be a normal operation thing, but only in case of emergency. What would cause that? I could imagine a situation where something in the motor of VFD went sideways and it stopped responding to commands to stop. Or there was smoke coming out of the VFD enclosure. That is about it. I guess I could run over to the subpanel in the shop and flip the breaker...