Newbee needs urgent help

[andyf9798]

Hello everyone and nice to see so many people interested in PLC related subjects and also an advanced happy easter to you all.

I have a few small issues to solve with some Delta VFD-F and pray one or more of you out there can guide me at least a little.

A little Background information
There is an system that uses a Windows PC application to send start and stop ( we think ASCII ) commands to the Delta VFD via RS232 converted to RS485.

The application on the PC is not so well written and now and then fails to send any data, the other problem is where this application came from nobody knows.

What we want to do is replace that application with a new one written in something like Delphi and issue these serial start/stop commands with the fresh program that i can easily create if i know what commands to send.

The Big Problem
1, We do not know exactly what baud rate or data settings the program is sending the data.

2, We do not know what data is being sent.

Where we are up to
We tried connecting another PCc comport to comport without the RS485 converter, did some hyperterminal send and receive tests to make sure our link was working ok and it was.

Then we went into a cycle of:
set a baud and protocol paramiters on PC2
run the application on PC1 to send the commands
Check if we see some kind of understandable commands arrive at PC2.
If not then we quit the application and start the cycle over again until we have been in every possible baud and parity combination.

We found around 19,200, 8,n,1 we see something that looks kind of similar to what is in the Delta VFD-F manual but not exactly the same.

The questions at last, sorry for the long explaination.

1, in the VFD-F manual it has commands start with a : but also a note that " Each 8-bit data is the combination of two ASCII characters. For example, a 1-byte data: 64 Hex, shown as ‘64’ in ASCII, consists of ‘6’ (36Hex) and ‘4’ (34Hex)." Does this mean that we will not see a ":" on PC2 instead we should be looking for HEX equivilents of its ascii value?

2, is it possible to find the exact commands and exact baud rate settings from the VFD-F

3, is it possible to backup the program memory of a Delta VFD-F and if so how?

That was a lot to ask and hope a hero exists out there.

Andy

 

[mordred]

http://www.delta.com.tw/product/em/drive/ac_motor/download/manual/VFD-F_manual_en.zip

the chapter on communication covers this all the answers are in here as to how to check your settings

I'd have to look but the drive manuals will also discuss backup methods

 

[mordred]

on parameter backup you can uplad tthe parameters to the HMI or write them down the drive may have available software such as drive explorer but I don't know as of yet as I never use Delta you can ask the tech support at the manufacturer on that or someone here may know

 

[andyf9798]

thanks for your reply but I studdied the manual in extream detail and only found details for installation and configuration from scratch, could not find anything relating to existing installations. Also i did contact the tec support but they do not seem to answer requests.

 

[mordred]

Now you have me confused if you lookin chapter 5 on communication by checking what value is used under each communication parameter does that not answer your second question on how to find out what its set at? the last question I answered on how to backup the parameters and that is to upload em from the drive to the HMI this way if you lose the drive the HMI has a storage of those parameters and you can then download em to the drive. The only other two methods I can see is to go through em one by one and write them down. This is fairly normal on VFD's unless you buy a drive explorer software that designed for the make of drive. Ie drive explorer for AB products although it only does some AB drives. First question I'm not positive on to answer

 

[mordred]

lets take an example parameter 09.01 page 5.54 this is your baud rate if the value under it is 01 then its set at factory default for that parameter which is 9600 baud. Parameter 09.04 is your format default is 00 which is 7 bit ascii

 

[andyf9798]

Hi Mordred,

Your not the only confused one, I also read those menu options to read from the VFD but to be honest I am very unsure how to enter the menu and also have a little fear of doing something wrong ending up with a totally messed system.

I am very familiar with the communication side with RS485 but not familar at all with a VFD or its menus.

I see that pressing mode seams to navagate around the varius registers but cant make sence of how to get to that area where the serial settings are. They are in group 9 but how from the menu to get there?

Press mode then?

Thanks for messages so far.

Andy

 

[mordred]

ok Now i grasp the issue wish I had that model of drive here to play on but I'll have to see if I can figure out the steps from the manual. Essentially your looking for the menu path to get to the communication group and need to know how to safely view those I'll see if I can find steps in the manual it should be there just need to narrow it out

 

[andyf9798]

Yes, that's spot on, and the path is a better word to describe it.

Its not so clear in the menu system, well not to me. I suppose once I see how to find one value without effecting the rest I will understand it very well and also be in a possition to get all the settings saved even if just into a spreadsheet.

 

[mordred]

There is one possibility see if you can get to parameter 06-17 parameter password protection if it shows a cvalue of 1 then someone has password protected the drive and you will only be allowed into monitoring menus such as drive status etc.

 

[mordred]

from what I can tell it sounds as though your password protected you should be able to access paramtyer 06-17 to confirm this if value is 1 then you will need to enter the password into 06-16 to acess the parameters you will need to use the prog/data button if its unlocked it should let you get to the different parameters and your right about one thing this manual is not the best for describing this when you enter the parameter it should display the current value then you use the arrow keys to modify without a drive of this series here thats about the best I can determine. PS if you don't have the password you can contact Delta and they may have a master password

 

[mordred]

side note I found this
http://www.delta.com.tw/product/em/download/download_main.asp?act=3&pid=1&cid=1&tpid=3

Yuo may want to check if VFDsoft has been installed on your PC