Look no further, the Inverter Drive Supermarket also provide a printable quick start guide which is worth its weight in gold, its so easy to understand.

**LINK**

Agree with above. I have my Super 7 on a Omron 1.1kw inverter that i bought 2nd hand from fleebay for 70 quid. With a 1.5 hp motor. Stonking unit with so many programable parameters. I also have a Toshiba on the milling machine. Do some homework as there are plenty around for not a lot of money. I am not saying the Chinese ones are no good as many members have them & are very happy with them. The only problem with inverters are that initially they are a pain in the butt to get your head round when setting them up. I am an ex Electrician & have fitted hundreds in my career.

It still took me ages to get mine set right. Notepad & pen . Write everything down as you alter it & you then can go back if it does not respond as you expect.

Believe me you will never remember all the settings unless you write it down. My Omron has over 160 different settings.

Good luck. You will not regret it.

The other thing is if you go the Chinese route. I believe the manuals are not the best in the world & some info is lost in translation. Ask Tom Hanks.

The Branded ones have a very comprehensive if baffling manual with them. If you do not get a manual with a branded 2nd hand unit, fear not they are all available free of charge from the manufactures of each unit.

As you commented just wire the motor in the Delta formation & all should be good. Look for an inverter with the same output as your motor. If you cannot find one , you can go for a larger one , but not smaller. Within reason. So if you need a 0.37kw but can only find a 0.5kw it will be fine. In the settings you can set the max output required.

Your standard belt configuration will be fine.

The standard motor will be 1420 approx rpm. With the inverter fitted & run at 50 hz then it will be the same 1420 ish.

The beauty being that if you buy a branded inverter you can underdrive by a huge sum & still get the same power. Using the Torque boost command. If you set the max at around 75 or 80 hz then you can speed the motor up to run at 1.5 times as fast.

Click the link & you will see my setup on the Myford. If you get bored jump to around the 7 mins mark & see how the inverter will make you glad you went down that route. Regards & good luck. Any further info either comment on here or Pm me.

Steve.

Branded inverter on a Lathe.

Several of my friends have bought cheap Huanyang Chinese inverters and I am pleased to say no problems at all. We watched a video on youtube and soon had them working. One came from Leicester, others from Germany for around £80/90 and more recently one friend bought one for £45.Why pay more, and perhaps as VW are having cars built in China, maybe some of the German sounding names on VFD are the same, who knows. Incidentally, I have kept a paper copy of the program and should any one like a copy I'll send them one. As hobby workshop enthusiasts, I don't think we require all the bells and whistles some of the more expensive vfd offer. In my case, I have a very old VFD sold by RS many years ago, programmed via dip switches, does forward reverse and speed control every thing I need. John

Wiring is simply LNE to the VFD (stick a plug on the end and then it isn't hardwired to mains so I dont think electrical regs apply). The 3 phases plus E to the motor. Done. If the motor goes the wrong way then swap two of the 3 phases around.

What I would say is those VFDs don't obviously have controls on the front (run/stop/reverse etc). Watch as some need special programmers to change settings. If that is the case then you'll need remote switches from the get go. Try something like this (mine delivered in less than 10 days). Link deleted see CofC

*****I stand corrected, the buttons are behind the flap. Less than ideal but for the money a compromise you could live with until you wire up remote 'industrial' buttons (you'll want some before long). They have a pdf quick start guide that shows the wiring clearly.

Edited By Mark Davison 1 on 21/11/2020 12:11:39

Edited By Mark Davison 1 on 21/11/2020 12:17:02

Edited By JasonB on 23/11/2020 09:34:18

Changed the 240v motor on my S7 for a three phase motor and and VFD purchased the motor, VFD and remote control station from Transwave also found after sales advice very good. Very pleased the the kit and happy with my lathe

H

In reply to SillyOldDuffer, I have recently swapped the single phase motor on my Myford 254 for a 1hp three phase unit and Mitsubishi VFD supplied by Newton Tesla. Continuously variable speed is really very convenient particularly as I am idle and did not change belt positions sufficiently often. The lathe seems considerably smoother with a better finish. Part of that is that it is very much quieter and I have more confidence to use highish speeds and heavier cuts. I use indexable tools anyway. Fitting was a doddle as you just plug in, although remounting a heavy motor is not that easy.

+1 for all Old Mart's suggestions and advice.

Not explicitly said by him, note thate these units are NOT desigined to be accessible. For safety and protectino they need to be mounted in some kind of a enclosure. The specification / instructions will tell you how much space is required around the drive.

You should also use one with EMC filter buit in unless you are confident in ftting an eternal filter. This is a requrement for safety (interference can cause unpredictable machine operation) as well s being a legal requirement.

Robert G8RP.

EMC filters. Not true. No legal requirements whatsoever for home use. Not up on industrial regs any more. But we only fitted them in industry where sensitive electronics were in the same area. Not in every panel. Blue chip companies. They all had there own engineering dept that wrote the specs for control panels. Many with a simple panel for a motor / conveyer etc never had any filters fitted..

I have 2 setups in the workshop & one has a Sony Dab radio directly above it. Never a problem. Wish i could say the same for the el cheepo led light, Sends the radio nuts.

It is nice to have an enclosure like old marts. I have the same setup as him on my Tom Senior. But not on the myford. No legal req for that either, unless there are bare wires accessible & no terminal covers.

Steve.

There seems to be some confusion about the purpose of an input EMC filter. It is not there to reduce radiated emissions, but to reduce conducted emissions. So the fact that a radio works nearby is irrelevant. The filter should also protect the VFD from spikes and noise on the mains.

The filter should prevent high frequency noise from the VFD reaching the mains. It should also help with harmonic currents. Simple diode/capacitor rectifiers draw current in short pulses, which has many harmonics. From the generators point of view this is bad. So there are regulations limiting the current harmonics caused by equipment. Larger and/or more expensive VFDs will have a power factor corrector (PFC) at the front end which causes current to be drawn in proportion to the voltage, ie, the current draw will be sinusoidal. In the absence of a PFC the input filter will reduce the current harmonics by passive means.

I fitted a VFD to my CNC mill to drive the separate high speed spindle. Since the VFD didn't have an inbuilt PFC I fitted an external filter. The VFD and spindle were bought as a package from ARC. I've never had a problem with RCDs tripping.

Connection of the shield for the motor connections is a controversial subject. Should the shield be grounded at both ends or just at the VFD? On the high speed spindle I grounded at the VFD end only. While running in the spindle bearings a check with a spectrum analyser didn't show any significant radiated emissions, at least above 1MHz:

Andrew

Re EMC filters, There is a legal requirement for them – the EMC Directive.

Steviegtr:

We are talking DOMESTIC installations not industrial the EMC requirements are very different. See link posted by Old Mart https://inverterdrive.com/group/AC-Inverter-Drives-230V/Schneider-Altivar-12-ATV12H037M2/
The fouth paragraph states (for the 1C1 VFD)

EMC Filters to EN61800-3 to the 1st Environment C1 (Domestic) for cable lengths up to 5m.
EMC Filters to EN61800-3 to the 2nd Environment C2 (Industrial) for cable lengths up to 10m.

The higher emissions for industrtral applications mean that longer cables (which act as antennas) can be used with the same filter. From your post and others you have made I believe you were mostly involved in fixed plant sytems that have even less requirements.
Apt from that, if someone else designed the panels you were buliding how do you know there were no filters? The designer may have chosen VFDs with built in filters.

There is a requirement for putting the VFD in a suitable enclosure – The Low Voltage Directive.
Again refering to the earlier link, the line beloe forth paragraph says " Cubicle mount. " VFDs are components, not finished products. The guides and manual on the linked page say " Electrical equipment should be installed, operated, serviced, and maintained only by qualified personnel. " Thes units do not have the level of protection required (touch proof terminals, robust terminal covers, cable strain relief etc) to be afe if not mounted in an enclosure. ltion for full EMC compliance is 1 to two days work in a specialist facility costing around £5000 per day. No I'm not suggesting a hobby installtion should do this, but at least do the basics and use a filter.
Not interfering with one DAB radio does not mean the installtion is not causing harmfull interference elsewere. Thesting a VFD instal
You can do whatever you like in your workshop, but plese do not encorage others not to follow good advice.

Clive Brown 1.

The fact that your drive tripped the MCB means it was not suitable for the domestic installation. Disconnectin the filters is not a cure. The correct solution to this would be to run the machines off a separate supply with a less sensitive RCD. Alternatively you could use a filter with less "Y" capacitiance but this will normally be more expensive as it typically needs more or larger inductors. You also have to make sure it is effective. Just because the drive manufacturer provides a means to bypass the filter, does not mean you don't need a filter. Typically the drives with filters have passed EMC testing (in a very controlled configuration) and if the installer wishes they can use this to assume compliance in their installation (they are still responsible if it does not comply). If you do not use the supplied filter you have to assume the unit is NOT compliant and take other measures such as your own filters.

I have done this and acheived full EMC and electrical safety compliance for small machines with multiple drives. It's not always easy. Our main drive suppler brought out a new family of drives (existing ones to become obsolete). We were the first users of the new drives. When we tested a machine with the new drives fitted it failled emissions totally. This was not even a power issue were the normal filters are but on control lines that we needed. Turns out they didn't connect all the control lines when they did their compliance testing. I designed a low level signal filter tht solved it on our inital production and helped the OEM re-design the drive circuit for a proper fix. As a result we got a lifetime special discount on those drives tha added up to a lot of money over the years.

Again, I don't suggest that hobby installations need to show full compliance (legally they do but enforcment is very very low) but we should follow good enginerring practice and use these things in a safe manner. While it is extremely unlikely to happen, if there is an accident (might not be to you if it's caused by EMC) or your house burns down because of a poor installation you could end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit or denied insurance claim. It's not happened yet, lets not be the first.

Robert G8RPI

More doom and gloom from Robert.

Firstly why do manufacturers produce VFD's with control switches on the front panel and provide an IP rating that conforms with use in a home workshop environment without further protection. ?
Clearly because it is a self contained motor starter with speed control.

Provided the VFD is CE marked it has already been certified by the manufacturer to comply with the Low Voltage Regulations.

If users wish for their own reasons to mount the VFD in an enclosure and add a remote control station that is their choice.

Emgee