# Long distance form VFD to motor



## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

I've been surprised by how long some long distance installs last without a load reactor. 

Set the carrier frequency as low as you can. 

If it was me I'd start it up and have a scope on it and see what it looked like before I made the call to run for a few days or not till the reactor showed.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

I didn't think of using a scope, that's a good idea.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

I agree with JLarson, set the CF as low as it can go, that helps a little. I've seen motors last for years like this, I've also seen some last for only weeks. But hours or days? Should be OK for that long, especially if it's an inverter duty motor (although not all "inverter duty" designs are alike).


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

5 HP motour run 30-70% of speed I hope that someone did order a seperated cooling fan unit because the oringal cooling fan on the motour will not work very well on low speed range.

Now for the distance without reactor that is pretty long run.

You will have to keep the CF low as possible on the VSD otherwise the spikes can really build up in long run.

Merci,
Marc


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

When the load reactor arrives, make sure you install it right next to the drive.
I had a customer bring in a crew to install 10 or so load reactors on a weekend. When I got there on Monday morning, I found that every reactor was installed at the motor.
Since a new engineer at Baldor gave them this wrong information, Baldor ended up footing the bill for the labor.


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## Jabberwoky (Sep 2, 2012)

John Valdes said:


> Since a new engineer at Baldor gave them this wrong information, Baldor ended up footing the bill for the labor.


Was this directly from an actual engineer or one of their tech support reps? Was this in the last 6-7 years?


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

Jabberwoky said:


> Was this directly from an actual engineer or one of their tech support reps? Was this in the last 6-7 years?


I am going to guess it was around 8 years ago or longer and the information came straight from Fort Smith. Headquarters.
All Baldors techs are engineers. I should say they all have degrees. That is a prerequisite for that job. Not to say there may be exceptions.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

John Valdes said:


> When the load reactor arrives, make sure you install it right next to the drive.
> I had a customer bring in a crew to install 10 or so load reactors on a weekend. When I got there on Monday morning, I found that every reactor was installed at the motor.
> Since a new engineer at Baldor gave them this wrong information, Baldor ended up footing the bill for the labor.


It never ceases to amaze me how little factory guys know sometimes. 

Most of the time, the info they have is rock solid, but every once in a while.....

In my case, there's room in the MCC bucket.


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## Jabberwoky (Sep 2, 2012)

John Valdes said:


> I am going to guess it was around 8 years ago or longer and the information came straight from Fort Smith. Headquarters.
> All Baldors techs are engineers. I should say they all have degrees. That is a prerequisite for that job. Not to say there may be exceptions.


I don't think our rep was an engineer because he used the phrase, "I'll have to consult the engineers", sometimes. He may have been an experienced sales rep but I don't recall ever talking to him to place orders.


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## Mr.C (Dec 20, 2009)

He meant he would have to consult the Project Engineer for the project. The guy in the field most likely is an engineer, a field service engineer, so if he's the field service engineer who do you think designed the system and approved it? The Project Engineer is responsible for the design of the system and the field service engineer makes sure the install is to design. When their is a design issue all changes must be approved by the Project Engineer to ensure quality. Sure we all make mistakes and we know they do to, when we make a mistake in the field we can correct it quickly and move on, when the Project Engineer makes a mistake and it gets installed, the problem turns commercial and can be costly to resolve. So when the field service guy says he has to talk to the engineers, he means it.


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

JRaef said:


> I agree with JLarson, set the CF as low as it can go, that helps a little. I've seen motors last for years like this, I've also seen some last for only weeks. But hours or days? Should be OK for that long, especially if it's an inverter duty motor (although not all "inverter duty" designs are alike).


Some how well guys always get lucky. No reactors, no drive cable, a crap load of wire just to get to the well head, no changes to the settings.

If it does die too soon they get to write it off as lightning :laughing:


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Jlarson said:


> Some how well guys always get lucky. No reactors, no drive cable, a crap load of wire just to get to the well head, no changes to the settings.
> 
> If it does die too soon they get to write it off as lightning :laughing:


So true. Or they blame it on the drive manufacturer. I used to use a drive from New Zealand called PDL that ALWAYS included a line and load filter built-in to the drive and only came in a sealed NEMA 12 (IP55) package with an external heat sink, no air exchange with the electronics. It was more expensive but I never once had a field failure. Nevertheless, I couldn't get orders with it against the lowballers and the company eventually got bought by Schneider, who immediately put a bullet in it's head. God forbid they made and sold a product that would last...


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

JRaef said:


> God forbid they made and sold a product that would last...


They have to peddle that Altivar crap.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Jlarson said:


> They have to peddle that Altivar crap.


I know... after the changeover, I did one project with the ATV-71 because they wanted to retain my business. I had to set up a simple PID loop control to maintain a level in a tank from an ultrasonic transducer. No problem, done it dozens of times with the PDL and other drives, I know how to program PID loops. But Telemecanique has chosen to not call their PID functions the same thing that everyone else in the industry calls them (i.e. Setpoint, Process Variable, Output etc.), the French have decided they know better and we should all conform to their way of describing it. But being translated directly from French, I found it very difficult to understand. I used up my entire month's worth of cell time on the phone to Schneider's tech support trying to program that PID loop, never got it to work right and my customer pulled the plug. Installed another brand of drive (ABB ACS550) and got it running in 10 minutes.


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