IronHorse ACN NEMA 4X VFD Overview - from AutomationDirect

The NEMA 4X ACN Family of Variable Frequency Drives are available in half horsepower through 20 horsepower in 230 Volts AC and in 460 Volts AC through 30 horsepower. And ... ALL drives in this family can operate with single phase input. The derating for that is roughly 50% on average. See the spec sheet for the exact numbers. All of which means these drives are ideal for a wide range of applications. The cool thing about the ACN Family of drives is they all share the exact same features. You don’t lose or gain features when you change drive sizes. What features? How about built-in STO. Yeah, EVERY drive in the entire family has Safe Torque Off control logic built in. Which means all you need to do is add a safety relay to get a fully compliant output disable for the drive! All drives have a built-in braking chopper. You don’t need to spend money on an external dynamic braking unit to protect your drive from overvoltage or over current conditions. Just provide a braking resistor and you are good to go! Keep in mind the internal braking is for typical braking where you are braking around 5 percent of the time. If you are braking more than around 30 percent of the time, then yeah, that will generate too much heat for the drive to handle and you will want to use an external braking unit just to get the heat away from the drive. In addition to the automatic braking resistor, you also have multiple ways to stop the motor I really like the way the ACN drives parameter groups are laid out. When you scroll through them you get a hint as to what each one is, not just some random number. Just press the left and right arrow keys to quickly access the various groups: Drive, Basic, Advanced, Control, Inputs, Outputs, etc. You get the idea. I especially like that the most common parameters can be quickly accessed using the up down arrows and again I get a hint as to what they are – acceleration, deceleration, drive command source, frequency command source, the multi-step frequencies, Output current, motor rpm, output voltage, etc. When I select direction control for example, I get to choose between forward and reverse – not a one or a zero where I can’t ever remember if a one is forward or reverse. The optional external keypad is next level. It connects via RS232 using any Cat-5 Ethernet patch cable – you don’t have to buy an expensive interface cable. It has full text displays where everything is spelled out in English, and it has a built-in easy start option that walks you through your first setup. There’s even an enclosure for the keypad so you can maintain your NEMX4X rating for the entire system. There’s a whole video dedicated to the external keypad and all the cool stuff you can do with it. It’s one of my favorite features of this drive. All ACN drives have 5 digital inputs that can be switched to NPN or PNP, two analog inputs, a digital output, a relay output, and an analog output that can be configured for current or voltage. The I/O can be extended using the optional I/O card which has 3 additional digital inputs. 2 additional form C relays, two more analog inputs, and an additional analog output. All ACN drives have both volts hertz and Sensorless vector modes. In Volts Hertz the drive simply sends out a predetermined voltage to generate an expected speed of the motor. Volts Hertz is the quickest way to get a motor spinning and is fine for most application. It requires the fewest parameter settings and it’s the default configuration for the drive. The ACN drives also have the ability to modify that curve for those times when you need to customize torque at a specific speed. The Sensorless vector mode is great for those times when you need higher starting torque, a more dynamic response or tighter speed regulation. These drives also have a slip compensation mode that ensures the motor doesn’t slow down as the load increases. And these drives have the ability to generate constant motor torque which Is ideal for applications where you need the motor to automatically adjust the speed to maintain a constant tension. Power failure is always a concern so the ACN drives provide both a flying start option and a kinetic energy buffering option. Flying start monitors the current and matches it as the drive ramps back up to speed which prevents sudden jumps in speed when the power is restored. Kinetic energy buffering uses the regen energy of the motor during a blackout to help maintain the DC bus voltage in the drive. That extends the time before a low voltage trip occurs and helps the drive ride out supply power brown outs. All drives in the family have RS485 built-in and you can add Modus TCP and EtherNet/IP with an option module. That saves you money, because let’s face it – most drive don’t need fancy communications so why pay for it when you don’t plan to use it? You can also connect to the drive configuration software with this module instead of using RS232. Since the drive configuration software communicates via serial coms, you only need a simple USB to RS232 or 485 converter to configure and monitor the drives status. This is the recommended cable, but I’ve used this guy and it works just fine. Speaking of configuring and monitoring, the FREE VFD Suite software makes commissioning, monitoring and debugging your drive super easy. You have quick access to the drives parameters, a graphical programming interface for the user sequencer, simple gauges and trends for monitoring drive status and it even has a parameter wizard that walks you through basic common setups. And again – it’s completely free. You can download it right now at automationdirect.com. Of course, these drives have all the usual things you would expect to find in a basic drive. The bottom line is the ACN Family of drives are a tremendous value because they have a low price point while maintaining a lot of high end features. and they are a proven reliable stable workhorse. And with free tech support, free software and free documentation, free CAD models, Free video tutorials, free shipping on all orders over 49 bucks on a huge in-stock inventory, and a 30-day money back guarantee, you have nothing to lose. Try one today at – AutomationDirect.com. Click here to learn more about the ACN family of variable frequency drives. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you will be notified when we publish new videos like this and click here to learn about all of AutomationDirect’s free support options.