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GS20(X) VFD: How to upgrade your GS20(X) drive firmware - VFD tutorial at AutomationDirect
https://www.AutomationDirect.com/drives
(VID-DR-0143)
Learn how to upgrade the firmware in the GS20(X) Variable Frequency Drive in this variable frequency drive tutorial. It costs nothig and is the best way to ensure you get the most out of this full featured variable frequency drive.
To learn more, check out our video library for lots of how to videos including PID, Torque Mode, using the FREE software, PLC programming and more!
All GS20(X) Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPdypWXY_ROq119AqwSjbSqxq3TgXJJFY
Before updating the drive firmware, backup the current parameters. You can learn how to backup parameters in the GSOFT2 video. Let’s go to parameter 00.06 to see the drive's current firmware version. Remove power from the drive – we don’t want the drive on while we do the update. Connect a USB cable to your PC and the drive’s USB configuration port. The USB cable will power the drive electronics during the firmware update. It’s a good idea to remove any USB devices you can from your PC – especially any USB-485M converters. They could interfere with the update process. It’s also a good idea to close any programs you are not using on your PC. Bring up the GSOFT2 application. Don’t connect to the drive, instead go straight to the VFD firmware update. Select the com port where your USB cable is located. In Windows Device Manager, look for this USB serial device. Looks like mine is on port 7 - yours will probably be different – and put that here. Select the drive family you are using – I’m using a GS20. Now that we have the drive family selected we can select the firmware file we need for the upgrade. Because we chose the drive family before doing this, GSOFT2 knew to look for the correct file type. If you don’t select the drive family first you have to remember to change this yourself. And of course, you can always download the most recent firmware version at AutomationDirect.com. That’s it. Now we just hit BURN to start the process. This takes around 5 minutes so I’m going to fast forward the video. Erasing the drive takes about 15 seconds, then it transitions into programming the drive which takes about 5 minutes. When it’s done you will see this UPDATE message on the drive. Apply power to the drive to complete the update. It takes a few seconds for these little dots to go across the screen, and once they are done, we have an updated drive. If we go back to parameter 00.06 we see we have the expected firmware version. My drive was already up to date so this didn’t change. Don’t forget to restore the parameters you saved back to the drive. A couple loose ends: You can update the firmware while the drive is in GS2 mode. The drive will still be in GS2 mode when the update is complete. You can’t update the firmware while the drive is powered, make sure only the USB cable is applying power. It’s best to use a direct USB port on your PC, or a powered USB hub and have no other devices plugged in while you do the firmware upgrade. If you are using an unpowered hub or have a bunch of devices plugged in it might interfere with the power available or cause other problems. I like to verify my coms before doing a firmware update. Just go to the connect dialog, choose the com port you are using, and make sure this is set to RTU and hit COM Test. If you get this green OK then the coms are good. Don’t hit the connection button – you don’t want to be connected while doing the update. If the firmware update has trouble connecting to the drive or the comport then try this. Connect to the drive, read the parameters, disconnect from the drive and try the software update again. This is a neat trick if the drive gets stuck in a weird mode that prevents the firmware update from working. That ought to be enough to get you going. Click here to learn more about the GS20 family of 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 more about AutomationDirect’s award winning support options.
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