If you are commissioning a drive, and the motor does not run, or run properly, you must determine if the problem is the drive, the motor, or the wiring. Executing the basic motor drive troubleshooting checks in a methodical order will help rule out what’s good and pinpoint what’s wrong. to help execute those motor drive diagnostic steps. This guide is specifically written to quickly walk you through steps where the display is dead, motor is not running, or motor is running incorrectly.
Why Motor Drives Commonly Fail
There are many reasons why variable frequency motor drives fail, ranging from simple to complex. This motor drive diagnostic checklist will walk you through the troubleshooting process, starting with the simple, common issues and gradually ratcheting up to the more complex issues. If you’re lucky, it will be something simple like loose wires or a faulty breaker. Drives also fail because of missing or incorrect parameters such as speed control or may fail due to excessive motor temperatures. The easy-to-follow steps in our motor drive troubleshooting and diagnostics guide are meant to be universal and should help you uncover your VFD fault issues.
Variable Frequency Drive White Paper: 5 Basic VFD Facts.
To help prevent variable frequncy drive faults, it is important to start out with a solid understanding of variable frequency drives and to select the correct VFD for your application in the first place. We recommend also downloading the Invention House white paper on the 5 Basic VFD Facts.
Need More Variable Frequency/VFD Diagnostics Help?
If you are facing a situation, where after the best VFD troubleshooting steps, your drives keep failing, or motors keep burning up, you are probably facing a situation where there is a mismatch between the motor and VFD or some connection or process in between. In such cases, you may want to look at a custom VFD from Invention House. Our drives are not one-size-fits-all but are tuned and programmed to meet a client’s specific needs. We specialize in 3-phase, higher horsepower drives used in demanding environments. So, if you still can’t get your variable frequency drives or motors working reliably, please Contact Invention House for a FREE over-the-phone consultation.
