I don't pretend to be a VFD expert but I'm hoping someone has some insight. I have a VFD in this facility on a newer system installed 3ish years ago before I was employed on site. Unfortunately when they bought this water system they didn't have the manufacturer commission the equipment so some of it didn't get tested after the install. Long story short - This drive and pump has never been online. Working with the engineers to try and get the pump going, I manually power up the pump off the VFD, the drive shoots to 40A, then eventually faults. I took an amp reading on the VFD output (while the readout said it was pushing 40A) and each phase is reading less than 2A. I've taken the motor out, meggered it, check for locked rotor and everything checks out fine. Plus I switched leads in the enclosure to a VFD I know is functioning and the motor spun up just fine. Is there a setting somewhere on the drive that I'm missing? Or is the drive just faulty? Again, the drive has 0 hours on it so it's odd it would have failed but I've seen stranger things.
ABB VFD Faulty?
- Thread starter MN-Guy
- Start date
ATSman
ATSman
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls
I'm no VFD guy either but based on what you stated it seems there is something basic or a setting not accounted for. I would use the startup or owners manual and go thru step by step to see if you forgot something or didn't "check a box"
Maybe Jraef (not sure I spelled it right) can chime in since he is the resident expert on drives
BTW my moniker is ABB because they bought out GE Zenith Controls, the transfer switch (ATS) division that we are a authorized service station for. Not the drive division!
Maybe Jraef (not sure I spelled it right) can chime in since he is the resident expert on drives
BTW my moniker is ABB because they bought out GE Zenith Controls, the transfer switch (ATS) division that we are a authorized service station for. Not the drive division!
Last edited:
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
Is the meter a true rms meter? It won't read right if it is expecting a sine wave and is getting a bunch of DC pulses off the VFD instead.
Best bet is to get the manual and go thru the commissioning procedure. Start by resetting the drive parameters to factory default. No telling what someone else did to it over the years.
Make sure you go thru the tuning procedure.
If you still have trouble try running it in volts per hertz mode instead of sensor less vector mode if that has been selected
Best bet is to get the manual and go thru the commissioning procedure. Start by resetting the drive parameters to factory default. No telling what someone else did to it over the years.
Make sure you go thru the tuning procedure.
If you still have trouble try running it in volts per hertz mode instead of sensor less vector mode if that has been selected
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer
Most likely someone failed to tune the VFD to the motor. Advanced VFDs need that to operate correctly. For most manufacturers it’s referred to as “autotune”, but In ABB world, it’s called an “ID Run” procedure. Same thing. When that isn’t done at commissioning, the motor model in the drive is inaccurate and can result in erratic behavior. Even if someone thinks it was done, do it again before venturing off into other rabbit holes.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
What does it do if you either don't have anything connected to drive output (some won't run if no load on them though) or with another motor temporarily connected to it? Can just be some small motor for this purpose doesn't need to be same rating as what it was supposed to be connected to.
I would think resetting it to factory defaults would allow it to run your motor if nothing is wrong with anything. May need to set a few basic parameters about the motor you are driving but not much else and I would think it would run well enough initially. Might then want to tune or tweak any parameters you may feel is necessary for better performance.
I take it this is new as in "never used" yet has been thirtyish years since it was made from what you mentioned in OP?
You said it eventually faults, what is the fault?
Is possible someone connected a voltage source to the output terminals and the output circuitry is toast, way back when they were trying to set it up and then gave up on it and it just sat there all this time because they didn't know what was wrong?
I would think resetting it to factory defaults would allow it to run your motor if nothing is wrong with anything. May need to set a few basic parameters about the motor you are driving but not much else and I would think it would run well enough initially. Might then want to tune or tweak any parameters you may feel is necessary for better performance.
I take it this is new as in "never used" yet has been thirtyish years since it was made from what you mentioned in OP?
You said it eventually faults, what is the fault?
Is possible someone connected a voltage source to the output terminals and the output circuitry is toast, way back when they were trying to set it up and then gave up on it and it just sat there all this time because they didn't know what was wrong?
I have PM'ed, troubleshoot & repaired a lot of VFD'S. I never measured the output current on drives especially if they were not running at 100%. Would measure the input amps. The current reading on the touch screens are also a good place to check ampere. There are over a hundred parameters on drives and if one was set I correctly that could be the problem. I strongly recommend that you call at least two of your local service companies and see how much they charge and if they give you an extended warranty if they perform a start up. Our local service company only charged $200 to 300 to perform a start up and extended the warranty & free labor out to three years. I would P touch the start up date on drive and a few times they had to come out during normal weekday business hours to replace an expensive part on some if our 100 HP drives. Found Danfoss & Allen Bradley to be far superior in over the phone tech support. Took me several e mai!s and two weeks before ABB finally told me how to find the DC buss voltage. Asked me several times why I wanted to know it. We had no manuals or training on the over 125 ABB drives in a new building.