AB Powerflex 400 Parameters

[andrewbe]

I just recently downloaded and installed V5.02, and the option that I use to connect to the drive is 'Explore' (which has no 'Create database' option)

 

[andrewbe]

Bump.

 

[DickDV]

Now I know why I just love discreet analog and digital inputs and keypad programming!!

Mercy! Guys! What kind of torture is this?

 

[andrewbe]

It sucks, mainly because I don't know much about it at all - but also because it seems we are so damn close but yet so damn far.

 

[kamenges]

At this point you have enough information to go back at the guys at Rockwell. You know the limitations and workarounds of the AS package and that is only an inconvenience at this point. The real issue as I see it is the drive has parameters that aren't referenced anywhere. You need to get some documentation to tell you what they are all about and what level of access you have on them from external sources.

Have you called Larry Olsen at Werner Electric in Neenah about this? As I remember he has a pretty good feel for this kind of stuff.

Also, got to the AB website and download the DF1 protocol documents. That will give you a shot at decoding the responses yourself.

Keith

 

[Ken Roach]

We're not on the same page, guys. We need the same software and manuals and need to be talking about the same drive if we're going to figure out incongruities.

I have DriveExecutive version 4.01, which is a couple of years old so it won't have a database for a new PowerFlex 400.

I have the 22C-UM001 User Manual that I downloaded just three days ago. It's dated October 2006 and includes information about PowerFlex 400 drives up to firmware revision 5.0.

Get that user manual and look at the organization of parameters on the first few pages of Chapter 3. There's not an unbroken linear list of parameters.

Instead there are groups; "b" parameters for Basic Display, "p" parameters for Basic Programming, "t" for Terminal Block parameters, "c" for Communications, and so on.

This block of "missing" parameters between 254 and 301 is just the numbering gap between the Aux Relay Card parameters that end at r254 and the Advanced Display parameters that begin at a301.

 

[andrewbe]

That is the same manual that I have and have been using this whole time.

 

[kamenges]

I have a coopy of the same manual. I also have an older copy of DE Lite. If I open an offline instance of the PF400, 230VAC, 25HP, the parameters listed in DE Lite match the paramters listed in the manual I downloaded.

Also, when reading from the drive we know that, using the modified N151 reads that andrewbe figured out, that he can correctly reference parameters at and above 301. So it doesn't look like the data access is doing anything odd when it encounters the gap between groups (at least anything more odd than it is already doing). The odd thing is he can also read parameters between 254 and 301. In addition his copy of DE Lite will read and write those same parameters. He just can't write those parameters using the modified N151 method.

andrewbe's copy of DE Lite probably uploaded the drive map out of the drive when he connected to it the first time. Since his copy of DE Lite won't let him uplaod a drive database we can't find out for sure.

Keith

 

[andrewbe]

And I have the newest copy of DE Lite, I just downloaded it late last week. And like I said earlier, I can see all those parameters on the drive too, so it's not like my software or DE are showing me things I shouldn't see.

 

[kamenges]

What parameter group does the HIM on the drive say the parameters between 254 and 301 belong to? What group does DE Lite put them in?

Keith

 

[andrewbe]

254 - 293: group R (Aux Relay Card) - both HIM and DE are the same
294 - 300 are not visible on the HIM or in DE

 

[andrewbe]

I am also accessing parameters 351 - 388, which are in a group called Custom Logic.

 

[andrewbe]

Actually, parameters 294 - 300 are visible in DE, but they are all 'Reserved' (and not in any certain group)

 

[andrewbe]

A slight update with this and maybe some more info that could trigger something. I contacted Rockwell with the new information that I had and they did confirm that any parameters over 250 ARE located at memory location N151, so my findings that N151:1 was actually parameter 251 are so on are correct. I brought up the issue of writing to those parameters on N151 (namely ones between 260 and 301) and he told me they told exist (as Kamenges had said too) I got the parameter list from Drive Explorer and sent it to him (to prove that they DO exist and I am not just being senial, lol) and then he said that he is not at all familiar with the PowerFlex 400E (apparently this is a different drive type than a normal PowerFlex 400?) He said he was going to do some more research into it - has anyone here ever heard of a 400E? I can't find ANYTHING online about it - I only found one reference to a 400E in a manual for some adapter (http://mid-island.com/downloads/pdfs/22COMM-B-UM008A-EN-P.pdf.pdf)

So yeah - I really don't know what this means - you would think if I could read them and write them no problem from N150 and I can read them no problem from N151, that writing them to N151 would also be no problem! But alas, still stuck...

 

[andrewbe]

And my Rockwell guy got back to me pretty quick - looks like this IS a custom-configured drive with custom firmware. The firmware engineer is looking into the issue, so hopefully this can get resolved quickly.

Silly custom things...