# Vacon 20 AC drive



## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

> ... but all it does is go to the minimum set frequency of 40 hertz when I hit start and the arrows do nothing.


If you have the minimum speed set to 40Hz, it will immediately go to 40Hz when you start it. If you are hitting the buttons telling it to go 10, 20. 30 Hz, it will ignore those, because the MINIMUM speed is 40! Did you try telling it to go 41 or 45 or 60Hz?

Assuming you didn't mean what you said there (sorry, couldn't resist), lets move on. You said;


> I have it set to key pad


So you went to P2.1, "_Remote Control Place 1 selection_" where you tell it how you are turning it on and off, and set it to 2 for "Keypad", right?

What about P3.3, _"Remote Control Place 1 frequency reference selection"_? That's where you tell the drive where the SPEED command is going to come from. On the old TB Woods drives, I recall the factory default was the keypad for this. On AB and ABB drives, the default for this is to use the speed pot on the keypad. On the new Vacon drive, the factory default is to use the analog inputs for the speed command. So the default setting is "7", you would have needed to change it to "2" for Keypad also.


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## Sparkee (Sep 22, 2009)

JRaef said:


> If you have the minimum speed set to 40Hz, it will immediately go to 40Hz when you start it. If you are hitting the buttons telling it to go 10, 20. 30 Hz, it will ignore those, because the MINIMUM speed is 40! Did you try telling it to go 41 or 45 or 60Hz?
> 
> Assuming you didn't mean what you said there (sorry, couldn't resist), lets move on. You said;
> 
> ...


I believe I set all the necessary parameters to "keypad' but I will check tomorrow.

Originally I had minimum frequency set to 0 but it would not work until I set it to a higher number. I figured I could set minimum to 0 and maximum to 60 and hit start and use the up arrow but it would not work the way I assumed.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Sparkee said:


> I believe I set all the necessary parameters to "keypad' but I will check tomorrow.
> 
> Originally I had minimum frequency set to 0 but it would not work until I set it to a higher number. I figured I could set minimum to 0 and maximum to 60 and hit start and use the up arrow but it would not work the way I assumed.


Should have. That sounds as if you are not giving it a speed reference from where it is looking for it, as per P3.3. Like I said if you didn't change it to "2", it's taking its speed command from somewhere else and not getting anything, so it does exactly what it's thinking it's being told; nothing. When you set the minimum top 40, it said "OK, still no speed reference, but 40 it is, because you said that's the minimum."


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

Sparkee said:


> I had a old T.B. Woods drive go bad and *I was told they were bought out and the replacement is the Vacon 20.* On the old drive the operator simply used the up and down arrows to adjust the speed but I can't get it to do it with this drive. I have it set to key pad but all it does is go to the minimum set frequency of 40 hertz when I hit start and the arrows do nothing. It is just 480 volts in and out with no control wiring. I am used to Powerflex and ABB and varying the speed on the key pad is pretty common. What am I missing? I have a call into tech support so hopefully they can help.


The replacement could have been any drive you wanted.
You could have bought a drive in an enclosure with the control you needed on the front. Start/Stop/Jog /On/Off and a speed pot.
No control wiring needed as its all already done for you. No programming either. Might have a few dip switches for special operations. But your application would have been 480 in and load out. Nothing more.


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## Sparkee (Sep 22, 2009)

John Valdes said:


> The replacement could have been any drive you wanted.
> You could have bought a drive in an enclosure with the control you needed on the front. Start/Stop/Jog /On/Off and a speed pot.
> No control wiring needed as its all already done for you. No programming either. Might have a few dip switches for special operations. But your application would have been 480 in and load out. Nothing more.


I agree. I would have preferred a Powerflex 40 but the quote was more (when I told my A.B. rep that he said I should have told him he was more and he would have worked with me). I gave the two prices to the owner and we both agreed to go with the cheaper one. Never again! Now I have to get the darn thing going. It works I just need to it work as an adjustable speed drive from the keypad so the operators can adjust the speed of the press.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Sparkee said:


> I agree. I would have preferred a Powerflex 40 but the quote was more (when I told my A.B. rep that he said I should have told him he was more and he would have worked with me). ...


Just for your future reference:
The PF40 is not going away any time soon because of the installed base, but it is being supplanted by the PF520 series. So how they get people to switch is to raise the pricing on the PF40. Most likely a PF523 (if you didn't need Ethernet) was less expensive than the PF40 now, maybe even less than the Vacon. 

Who's your distributor? I'll beat them with a wet noodle...

Ah, never mind, I see your in SoCal, not my area of responsibility.


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## Sparkee (Sep 22, 2009)

JRaef said:


> Just for your future reference:
> The PF40 is not going away any time soon because of the installed base, but it is being supplanted by the PF520 series. So how they get people to switch is to raise the pricing on the PF40. Most likely a PF523 (if you didn't need Ethernet) was less expensive than the PF40 now, maybe even less than the Vacon.
> 
> Who's your distributor? I'll beat them with a wet noodle...
> ...


I've installed a 520 before. I like the way the 520 tells what your fault is instead of just an error code. 

I talked to the tech at Vacon and he told me I need to be in REF to change the frequency. I had it in Monitor. I will swing by the later and try it.


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