PLC to control multiple Yaskawa V1000 VFDs

Join Date
Jun 2015
Location
New Jersey
Posts
3
I'm looking for a PLC solution to control multiple variable frequency drives at one time. I have a testing setup that uses Yaskawa V1000 VFDs to control a bunch of motors/pumps.

Right now, I am running the VFDs one by one.

The goal of the PLC is to run multiple VFDs together at the same time up to a certain frequency or through a range of frequencies for a certain period of time and then shutdown.

Can anyone steer me in the right direction or point me toward a solution?
 
Are you planning on using any communications option card in the V1000's? I would suggest the SI-EN3/V Ethernet/IP card and a CompactLogix PLC.
 
why don´t you use the RS-485 communication that is already available on the drive.
 
Actually you can do what you want without a PLC at all just use the digital pulse string out / in with a master slave configuration on the drives.
set the speed on the master and all the slaves will follow with the exact same speed.
as for the Start Stop command just use a common connection or have the run output of the master to the run input of the slaves
 
I'm not sure if we are using a communications card with these VFDs. I will find out and get back to you guys on that. I'm not 100% familiar with the set up and I wasn't the one who built it. I was tasked with helping find a solution to automate the testing process and get all of the VFDs to run together.

GaryS and nonuke, you both mentioned that I could run multiple drives without a PLC. Is it possible to have them run for a specified period of time or is that beyond the capability of the VFD?
 
The V1000 has a timer. You may be able to configure it to work the way you want. That's not what it was designed for. You could use a smart relay for the timer function.
 
I'm not sure if we are using a communications card with these VFDs. I will find out and get back to you guys on that. I'm not 100% familiar with the set up and I wasn't the one who built it. I was tasked with helping find a solution to automate the testing process and get all of the VFDs to run together.

GaryS and nonuke, you both mentioned that I could run multiple drives without a PLC. Is it possible to have them run for a specified period of time or is that beyond the capability of the VFD?

What I meant was that you could connect all the drives to an RS485 card in the PLC. You don´t need to buy any card for the drives because they already have an RS485 card built in.
 
Okay, so having all the VFDs running together won't be an issue.

However, I don't believe you will be able to program the VFD to run through a certain range of frequencies for a specified duration. We would need some kind of PLC solution to program the VFDs to be able to do this.

This is all completely new to me. I'm just getting my feet wet with PLCs and VFDs, so I apologize if my questions come off as very elementary or it takes me a moment to grasp the topic.
 
You could go by it in two ways; both will need PLC integration though.

One method would be the programming of Preset Speed values in each drive and a selection of said presets depending of the drive's onboard Inputs' states; some of the PLCs Outputs will be connected to previously mentioned VFD Inputs; the PLC ladder logic will turn said PLC Outputs On/Off depending of the intended functionality thus commanding the drive to run at the specified speed presets.

The second method will use communications between the PLC CPU and the VFD's onboard controller; the standard interface between a CPU controller and a drive uses two words (2 X 16 bits) of PLC Output and 2 words of PLC Input; The PLC Output words (written to the VFD) are commonly called Command and Reference; the PLC Input words (read from the drive) constitute the Status and the Feedback.

Once the communications are established, the PLC user program will write a value within the second drive communications Output word which represents the Speed Reference and then will turn On/Off bits located within the first (Command) word written to the VFD word; each bit represents a drive command such as "Start, Stop, Jog, etc..
 

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