VFD/Lathe fault

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

I don't think the VFD makers have really come to terms with the way falling prices and greater internal "intelligence" have made installing smaller VFDs practical for folk with little specialist experience. Installation followed by a few simple steps to get it working being one thing. Sorting an issue if it either doesn't work initially or stops doing what its supposed to do later being a horse of wholly different colour.

One reason why I tend to steer folk towards the Eaton DE-1 "smarter replacement for an ordinary contactor" devices is that there is essentially no scope for misguided finger-poking to mess things up. Which seriously cuts down on the help calls from folk who can't leave well enough alone. People who do know what they are doing generally don't ask, or need to ask, me in the first place.

It would be nice to have a printable form with all the default settings and what they actually do listed with spaces alongside to fill in any changed values and what the changes do. Nicer still would be an online version where you can fill in the parameter values you have set that automatically fills in the effects. Neatly printed out is always more readable than hand annotated scrawl, especially mine, and automatically generating the effects provides some protection from fat finger issues when changing parameters. If such a form were available, or a home made substitute produced, laminating it for protection so it could be kept with the VFD seems useful.

The ideal would be some sort of interrogation system able to read off the parameters actually set and flag up anything thats wrong. But I can't see that happening.

Clive

[fastdaveParticipant @fastdave]

'have made installing smaller VFDs practical for folk with little specialist experience'

Don't mean to sound elitist, but that's why we have 'qualified' electricians. I went to work as a leader in a multi skilled taskforce for one of the Diagio outfits. I found quickly that electrical craftsmen moved quickly from one discipline to another, but mostly the mechanical guys had an inherent fear of what they couldn't see.

Healthy fear in my eyes – I have had brain jolting shocks, mostly from others carelessness, the worst being a factory foreman who came in and switched all of the machinery on to start the day, whilst I had a 'DO NOT TOUCH' notice pinned right in front of him – I got such a belt from 440V that I shouted out – very loud – involuntarily – yes, lucky me – I didn't die!

But let us not stop there, for have we not given the village idiot mobility, issuing driving licences willy nilly – most people could not tell you what the highway code is, never mind individual parking rules – but you're right, I digress – the point is that all of these devices have manuals with pages of health and safety and restrictions, before the technical stuff starts – electricity is not measured in thousandths of inches or millimetres – it is a silent invisible killer.

Dave, (I'm sorry to bring this up after such a happy ending), Fife.

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