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VFD went nuts!

Susquatch

Susquatch

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The Teco L510 on my Mill just went crazy. Prolly my fault.

I was recording my settings in preparation for swapping the VFD to my lathe (it's a 3hp VFD, and I have a 2hp VFD for the 2hp mill - long story) and was going through all the settings with no problem till I got to 00-21 in the basic parameters. There is no 00-21 in the book. But there is in the setup. It was set to 0. No biggie. BUT..... When I exited 00-21, lots of things had changed in lots of places, I don't know why, and I don't know where. It doesn't even run.

I reprogrammed all of section 00 and now it works, but not great. The carrier frequency is audible even to me!

BOTTOM LINE - DO NOT TOUCH 00-21. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT!

Anyone know WTF Happened or why?
 
Update - All running good again after going through all the settings. Yes, the carrier frequency had been set to 2kHz. No wonder my motor was whining. WTF happened???

@BaitMaster?

I'll call Teco tomorrow.
 
Susquatch said:
The Teco L510 on my Mill just went crazy. Prolly my fault.

I was recording my settings in preparation for swapping the VFD to my lathe (it's a 3hp VFD, and I have a 2hp VFD for the 2hp mill - long story) and was going through all the settings with no problem till I got to 00-21 in the basic parameters. There is no 00-21 in the book. But there is in the setup. It was set to 0. No biggie. BUT..... When I exited 00-21, lots of things had changed in lots of places, I don't know why, and I don't know where. It doesn't even run.

I reprogrammed all of section 00 and now it works, but not great. The carrier frequency is audible even to me!

BOTTOM LINE - DO NOT TOUCH 00-21. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT!

Anyone know WTF Happened or why?
Click to expand...

I believe that basic parameter 00-21 is acceleration time 3, with the inputs between 0.1 - 6000
 
Update - All running good again after going through all the settings. Yes, the carrier frequency had been set to 2kHz. No wonder my motor was whining. WTF happened???
 
Susquatch said:
In the manual, it is not listed at all. Accel time is 00-14 on the L510.
Click to expand...
There are multiple time inputs

I've found if I'm not careful I can accidentally end up changing a setting as I scroll thru

The L510 uses so much of the A510 board and software. There is a 00-21 for the A510, so while not in the L510 manual you can change a setting that may or may not screw up the programming
 
PaulL said:
I can't wait until these things just expose a wifi web interface so that passers-by can reprogram my VFDs.
Click to expand...

On a serious note, why such a cryptic antiquated user interface? I'd like to be able to connect a pc or a smartphone and view and change settings on a screen instead of that god-forsaken system. If that meant the chance of wifi hacking, so be it. I live in the middle of no place. Nobody is parking out in my cornfield to hack my VFD. Maybe a chastity lock.....
 
Susquatch said:
On a serious note, why such a cryptic antiquated user interface? I'd like to be able to connect a pc or a smartphone and view and change settings on a screen instead of that god-forsaken system. If that meant the chance of wifi hacking, so be it. I live in the middle of no place. Nobody is parking out in my cornfield to hack my VFD. Maybe a chastity lock.....
Click to expand...
That's exactly what my cryptic sarcasm was trying to point out. My new solar charger/inverter serves up a reasonable web interface making it a pile easier than the last one.
There's really no reason the programming of these VFDs is so awful except for the "it's good enough" nature of what's there.
 
Susquatch said:
On a serious note, why such a cryptic antiquated user interface? I'd like to be able to connect a pc or a smartphone and view and change settings on a screen instead of that god-forsaken system. If that meant the chance of wifi hacking, so be it. I live in the middle of no place. Nobody is parking out in my cornfield to hack my VFD. Maybe a chastity lock.....
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I'd love to have a GUI and be able to flash changes from my laptop or tablet
 
The drive in my mill, a Parker Spindleblok uses a windows based config program called sbconfig. This is the only way to adjust parameters in fact. There's no LCD on the drive at all, nor any buttons. Many other drives have similar programs.
20250126_214331.jpg
 
As far as I can tell @TorontoBuilder is right in his hypothesis about the A510 and L510 parameter theory, as that parameter is not listed…. It likely has some internal value that is not supposed to be messed with.

Now, what would I do if I was in that pickle myself or servicing a customer with that pickle?

I would factory reset the drive, and program it completely from scratch.

When you mess with something you aren’t supposed to, factory resetting is the best option and usually the only one that works.

I would then call Teco and raise a stink and try to get a hoodie or a free drive out of them or at least a mug. Maybe a free drive. I don’t know, don’t get if you don’t ask.

At least they would be aware of their problems and on the next firmware update they can correct it if they haven’t already.

Glad you got it figured @Susquatch
 
The L510 has had several user interfaces over that past 8 years. I've used 3 of them. The most striking are the L510 I bought 7 years ago, and the one I bought last year. Many parameters were moved, expanded and in a few cases disappeared completely.

I believe you ran across a reset parameter. It resets the unit and puts it in test mode - this was a feature in the version before mine. I wanted to find out more, but my 7 year old one didn't have it in the book any more. I guess it is still there as a 'hidden feature'!

(I'm not going to try it, though)...
 
Ironman said:
Fatfingering
Click to expand...

It has crossed my mind.

However, the odds are low. Seems much more likely that looking at a forbidden parameter caused it to reset a bunch of others. But ya, maybe I accidentally changed that setting while looking at it. I can't rule that out.
 
BaitMaster said:
When you mess with something you aren’t supposed to, factory resetting is the best option and usually the only one that works.
Click to expand...

I did this once before and I've regretted it ever since. The first time I ever programmed a VFD I got too deep into her without recording what I did. Next thing you knew, I was in trouble and didn't know how to get out of it so I did a factory reset. The problem I encountered then was that factory reset is not factory reset! Some stuff reverted to factory and some didn't! I think they make certain changes at the factory after a factory boot before shipping..... I ended up going through every setting and finally got it to work, but I hate shit like that! VFDs are not the only devices guilty of that. I've seen that problem on routers and phones too!
 
Dabbler said:
The L510 has had several user interfaces over that past 8 years. I've used 3 of them. The most striking are the L510 I bought 7 years ago, and the one I bought last year. Many parameters were moved, expanded and in a few cases disappeared completely.
Click to expand...

YES! I've noticed that too! I downloaded a manual and printed the chart of parameters so I could go through them and some were not correct at all! So I found a manual already on my phone and looked at it. It was somewhat correct for my VFD so I used it instead. Still, there were lots of new settings in my VFD that were not documented in the manual.

Dabbler said:
I believe you ran across a reset parameter. It resets the unit and puts it in test mode - this was a feature in the version before mine. I wanted to find out more, but my 7 year old one didn't have it in the book any more. I guess it is still there as a 'hidden feature'!
Click to expand...

THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! Also, I had a hard time getting back to start (had to unplug it) so entering test mode even makes sense.

I marked up my parameter sheet for 00-21 with big bold letters. DO NOT TOUCH! DO NOT EVEN LOOK!

Dabbler said:
(I'm not going to try it, though)...
Click to expand...

Wise man. Very wise.

I am going to take @BaitMaster's advice and call Teco though. Not interested in a free mug, but I'd like to check to see if they have user manuals by VFD version as well. I'm not at all sure that the manual I used is correct for my VFD. I found lots of other parameters that were undocumented too.......
 
Susquatch said:
I found lots of other parameters that were undocumented too.......
Click to expand...
I found some on mine also. Tinkering is fun, but it has its risks!

When I was helping @Janger with his Teco A510, it stumped me for hours, until John noticed that the unit was set to 'remote control panel'. From the factory. With no indication that remote switches are needed.

Once that hurdle was overcome the rest was easy.
 
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