Huanyang VFD controller plugin

[mhasting2004]

Hi Ennova

Everything looks ok so I'd check two more things:
1. The Maxxim chip on the USB converter board looks slightly out of its socket and
2. Check the fuse on that board with a voltmeter

Having said that you have the same problem on both setups so that does point to some common setting somewhere.

Hmmm.. i'll have to tink some more.

BTW as these signals (RS485) are differential ones you should twist your cables at least 2-3 turns per inch to help with noise immunity.

Cheers

Mark

PS make sure that the huanyang pluging has a green tick next to it as suggested by Michel pet

[Matty Zee]

Good work Ennova. Looks like the USB-RS485 Converters are working fine(EDIT) Maybe its not working, i can't see if they are sent or recevied messages. Try the following anyway (EDIT). I can see messages in the screen dump you provided. Now to make things clearer for debugging, un-check the speed the current tick boxes. This should get rid of all of the 'polling' .i.e the constant stream of messages. Now you should only see messages appear when you click start and stop or change the spindle speed. Can you provide a screen dump with a few of these messages. for example, after you have turned off the other messages, clear the serial monitor window, click 'Spindle ON' button and see what messages appear in the serial monitor. Post that screen dump.

[ennova]

Here you are Matty Zee, thanks for your time:
Also I attached a .xls file that contains all the 167 lines from simply pressing the "start" spindle button.

[Matty Zee]

Ok, seems the Plugin is configured correctly as it is outputting messages but the there is no reply from the VFD. You can see the first message (02 05...CD BD set speed) being repeated 6 times, then the next message (02 03...31 CC start spindle) repeated six times, then the plugin sending a stop command as no reply had been recieved for the first two.
Double check you correctly set the VFD address on the VFD to match the plugin. I can't seeing anything else wrong with your other VFD regsiter settings.

[Matty Zee]

I thing i just noticed and i have no idea if it makes a differece. Your adapter similat to mine is the G version, mine is the F version. I wonder if this affects the ADDC TopNotch mentioned. I haven't heard back from him in a while.
http://www.hexin-technology.com/USB_to_Serial_Converters-Subcatalog-84.html

Try your other one that Michel has working. Mut as Mark suggested check that Maxim chip is pressed into the socket properly.

[Matty Zee]

Michel, have you got your RPM speed correct now?

[mhasting2004]

Couple more thoughts...

 Ennova , I'm not sure with the Hexin unit how you specify rs485 as opposed to rs422 (they are different) and maybe the F version which is rs485 only would work better. I have the same adapter as Michel (your other one ) and am curious how your grounding is set up as maybe there is no common ground referance between your VFD and the RS485 board and its power supply. This may cause issues.

Here's a crazy idea... wire the 2 converters together ie usb to rs485 then rs485 back to usb to check if both converters are working without having to deal with the VFD for the moment. This will at least let you know they are working correctly or not.

cheers

Mark

[Lapin]

Hi everyone.

I have also had a bunch of problems with getting this to work. but finally i got the plugin to read from vfd both PD001 and 002 says "2" and that shows that the vfd are communicating with mach.

The problem i have now is that nothing happens when i press start spindle button. anyone got the same problem? or is it just something in mach i need to change? (relay is off)
I have the same usb adapter as matty zee, but the G version.

[Matty Zee]

Can you download the serial monitor program and provide some screen dumnps like Ennova? this will show what is happending with the VFD comms.

Also, silly question, but have you set the spindle speed to something reasonable like 12000? (i.e. its not set to 0 is it?)

[ennova]

As far as I can tell the plugin is working as it should and the USB converters seem to be working as well.  So problem lies with the communication with the VFD.  Could anything like an "antivirus" or any other windows program block communication with the USB serial port?  How can I tell which version of the VFD I have?  I am wondering if they changed something in-between revisions.  Maybe they listened and made it Modbus compliant.(yeah right)  In all probability something is probably wrong with my VFD or there is some other problem that I can't figure out. 

I tried grounding the breakout board to the same ground I have my VFD grounded to.  Same effect.  While I was testing things with a multi-meter I noticed that if I touch the screw leads for A and B with my negative and positive test leads then I get continuity, but not the other way around(found out later).  So there appears to be a diode connection them. Not that this is really helpful, but I thought I'd share as it freaked me out for a minute.  I thought I had a short in my wires somewhere.