PowerFlex 700 Commisioning Problem

This is about the third PowerFlex 700 drive I've put in and I've had the same issue each time getting it to run.

In this case it was wired for two-wire reversing operation on digital inputs 1 & 2. Digital 1 was set to Run FWD and Digital 2 was set to Run REV.

A 10kOhm pot was wired into analog 2 and setup as the speed referece. The speed reference worked fine but when we applied voltage to digital input 1 the drive would not start. There were no faults or alarms. I suspected that the problem was with the logic mask (276) or the start mask (277) but I could not access the parameters through the HIM. I played around with it for about 1.5 hours checking and rechecking my settings with no success.

I finally went and stole a 20-Comm-E card from a drive we aren't using tonight and installed it on the drive and connected to drive executive. I went to the start mask (277) and the digital in bit was not set. I set the bit and the drive began working exactly as I had expected.

My question is how do you manipulate this mask without drive executive software. It seems silly that I have to install an ethernet card just to get the drive up and working when I have no intention of networking the drive permanently.

User Manual 20B-UM002, Chapter 3

The Logic Mask and Start Mask (Parameters 276 and 277) are in the "Advanced Logic Parameters" group.

If you set the Parameter Access Level (Parameter 176) = 1, you can access those parameters.

I don't know if the Logic Mask or Start Mask are set by any of the assisted startup routines in the PowerFlex.

If you are using the 24V DC out of the drive to power your digital input you need to tie the 24V common of the drive to the 24V-of the drives power supply. This is done so that you can use a seperate DC supply if you want


This has gotten me more than once.

We were using the 110VAC I/O board. It was definately a problem with the parameter. I didn't know about the access level parameter. I'll try that when I get back to work to see what happens.

also if the powerflex 700 has a removable HIM you may want to upload the parameters into the HIM from the drive as a backup. Then when you dowload the HIM to the drive that parameter should tranfer with it.