BEST VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) - DuraPulse GS4 QuickStart from AutomationDirect

GS4 Drive Quick Start Let’s do a quick demo so you can see how easy it is to get a motor spinning with a GS4 Drive. I’m using this drive with single phase 230 VAC power so we just wire the two power leads to any of the three phase terminals and put the ground here. Then we just wire the three drive output terminals to the three phases of the motor. Now we need to tell the drive what motor we just connected and how we want it to act. To do that, we COULD press the MENU button and to go into the parameters menu and go hunt for all the parameters we need to get the motor turning. But with over 500 parameters that’s a bit overwhelming until you are familiar with how the parameters are organized and used. The good news there is a Quick Start Menu, with a Basic menu that’s already collected the minimum parameters you need to get going in one place. And while there are 19 parameters in this basic menu, if you just want to get a motor spinning quickly, the defaults are fine for most applications. So really, there are only a couple you actually need to change to get that motor running. Before we try it though, look at this: If you back up one to the 19th parameter and hit enter, it takes you right to the factory reset parameter. Let’s reset this drive to the 60 Hz factory default so if you’re following along, we will both be starting from the exact same place. Great. Let’s see if we can get this motor spinning by changing just a couple parameters. Quick start parameter1 is the Motor max voltage which the motor label says is 230 Volts which is the default value, so no change there. Quick Start parameter number 2 is the full load amperage, which the motor name plate says is 3.2A so we’ll change that and hit enter. Quick Start parameter 3 is the Motors base frequency – the default is fine. Quick Start parameter 4 is the motors max rpm, which the name plate says is 1725 so the default 1710 is close enough for now. Quick Start Parameter 5 is the motors max frequency which we’ll leave at the default 60 Hz. Quick Start parameter 6 is the horse power which you would normally change, but we’re using a 1 hp motor in this demo so the default happens to be correct. For the rest of this, the defaults are fine for now. So we’re ready to go BUT - don’t hit the RUN button yet – there’s one thing you need to be aware of … It’s rare here in the US, but if you have an un-grounded or un-balanced power supply system it’s really important that you make sure the RFI jumper is removed. Variable Frequency Drives can put a lot of noise back on your system power lines, so there’s an RFI filter built into the drive to prevent that. But if you have an un-grounded or un-balanced power supply, the RFI filter may become a path to ground which could burn up that circuitry. You might hear a pop or even see or smell a little smoke. The drive will still run, it will just put more noise back on the power lines than normal because the RFI filter is blown. I’m using 230VAC system with proper grounding – and hopefully you are too – so we can leave the RFI jumper in. If we hit the RUN button … the motor starts to turn – exactly what we wanted. And all we had to do was tell the drive a little bit about the motor we connected it to. Click here to learn more about the GS4 Family of Variable Frequency Drives. Click here to learn more about AutomationDirect’s support options. Click here to subscribe to AutomationDirect’s YouTube Channel so you will be notified when we publish new videos.