29. Tutorial: Allen Bradley 161 Variable Frequency Drives

1. The motor should be connected the the drive as shown in the figure below. The three phase power lines are T1, T2 and T3. These can be connected to the drive by loosening the screw on the front face of the drive. (WARNING: make sure the power is off before opening the drive, and relseal the drive when done) The two other lines P1 and P2 from the drive are for a thermal overload relay, we will not use these. For general caution the ends of the wires should be covered with electrical tape to prevent accidental contact with other conductors. The wire from P24 (a 24V power source) and input 3 are for an emergency stop and must be connected for the drive to work. These terminals can be found under a flip up panel on the bottom front of the drive that can be opened by pulling on the right side of the face.

2. Notice the display and lights on the front face of the drive. When a program is running the ’RUN’ light is on. The program can be started using the green ’1’ button, and stopped with the red ’0’ button.

3. Program the unit using the buttons on the front panel, following the steps below (from page 17 in the manual). After the steps have been followed press the run button and turn the potentiometer to vary the speed. Try holding the shaft (cover the shaft to avoid cuts) at high and low speeds. What do you notice at very low speeds?

4. Connect a proximity to the controller as shown in the diagram below. Display the input values using ’D05’.The bits on the screen should move up for an active input, and down for an inactive input. Input 3 will always be active because it is being used for the emergency stop (a factory default).

5. Various display parameters are listed below. Try these to see what information they show.

D02: display the motor current (try holding the shaft while turning slowly)

D01: display the frequency of rotation

D03: the direction of rotation

D04: PID parameters (when in use)

D05: input status

D06: output status

D16: total drive run time in 10 hour blocks

6. Function parameters can be set with the ’F’ locations. Change the acceleration and decelleration times to 1 second using the ’F02’ and ’F03’ locations.

7. Restore the controller to the factory defaults using the sequence below from page 16 of the manual.