WEG CFW300 VFD Use a 3-Position switch to control Forward-Stop-Reverse from AutomationDirect

This drive is controlled by a three-position switch which controls forward, off and reverse. Let’s see how to set that up. I’m using this switch which comes with a pair of normally open contacts and a pair of normally closed contacts. The two normally open contacts are wired into digital inputs 1 and 2 like this. This is an illuminated switch, so let’s have the digital relay output control the light. I reset the drive to factory default, so we are both starting from the exact same place. These are the motor parameters I entered for my motor, yours will probably be different. And here are some other parameters I modified. I also sped up the default ramp values to help expedite this video – that won’t be a problem because I don’t have any load on this motor. Great! Now we need to assign the digital inputs. I’m going to use the WPS software to setup the drive because it’s easier for you to see what I am doing, I’m using this optional USB module to connect my PC to the drive. Do YOU need to use the optional USB module and free WPS software to do this? Nope. You can do all of this from the front panel of the drive. I’ve already created a configuration and a resource for my drive – check out the WPS quick Start video to learn how to do that – and I am already connected to the drive. Ok. We just need to assign the digital inputs. So, I’ll bring up the parameter list and search for DI and we see that DI1 is currently set to run stop, so let’s change that to be our forward control. DI2 is set to its default which is rotation, so let’s change that to reverse control. I’ll be running the drive in local mode, so let’s search for local and we see local run stop defaults to HMI control. Let’s change so local run stop control is controlled by the digital inputs. That’s it. Were done. If I switch to FORWARD, the motor spins in the forward direction and if I switch to REVERESE – uh oh .. The motor is still going in the forward direction! What’s wrong? We’ll we missed one crucial step. When doing this you need to remember to tell local mode that it is ok to run in reverse. So, if we search on local – ahh - there it is – parameter 223 defaults to forward only. Let’s change that so the digital inputs control forward and reverse when we are in local mode. Now if we switch to forward the motor turns in the forward direction, and we switch to reverse the motor turns in the reverse direction. Perfect. Finally, let’s have the digital output control the light. If I search for DO, we see it defaults to No Fault – so this light was telling us there was no fault in the drive. Let’s change that to run status. Now when we run forward … or reverse … the indicator lights up. Cool. Here’s a summary of the parameters we changed. Since we really only changed four things beyond the normal motor and drive control stuff this could easily be done from the drives HMI. Not bad at all. And if you want to do this in REMOTE mode? Just use these parameters instead. And of course, don’t forget to tell the drive you are in remote mode. Click here to learn more about the WEG CFW300 drive. Click here to learn about AutomationDirect’s free award-winning support options and click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you will be notified when we publish more videos.