The WEG Programming Software makes it super easy to monitor and configure a drive.
BUT, before starting though there are a couple important things you need to know.
First and MOST important – don’t plug a USB cable into the drive.
Yeah, I know, it has a couple ports that look just like mini-USB connectors, but you do
NOT want to plug a USB cable into those – bad things can happen to the drive and your PC.
The only way to communicate with this drive from your PC is to use one of the three available
communications modules.
Let’s install the 485 module for this video.
Make sure the power to the drive is off – the manufacturer recommends waiting 10 minutes
- then remove this cover and plug in the 485 module.
I’m using this USB to 485 converter with this flying lead cable and all I have to do
is connect the RED wire to plus and the green wire to minus.
Apply power to the drive and launch the WEG Programming Software, which I’ll refer to
as WPS.
If this “show welcome” screen box is checked then you will see this dialog.
For this video we are just going to quickly monitor and change some parameters sing this
guy.
If the box isn’t checked, then just go to On Line >> Quick Parameter Monitoring.
I like leaving that box checked so I don’t have to remember which menu this is in.
If you ever need to get back to the Welcome screen, it’s up here in the Help Menu.
Click on quick parameters monitoring.
Even though we are using a USB converter, the PC thinks it is a serial port so we check
this one.
We need to know which serial port the USB converter is emulating so bring up your PC’s
device manager, open ports and we see that this Silicon Labs device is on port 12, so
we put that … here.
The rest of this is the default for the CFW300 drive so I’ll hit test to make sure we can
connect.
Yep, the device is on line and we are good to go.
If test DOESN’T give you that result, then check that these settings match these serial
parameters in the drive.
Click OK and you instantly see all the drives parameters, names, factory defaults and units.
And since we are connected to the drive, these are the actual parameters in the drive.
You can also view by category – if I click on Motor control, then I only see the parameters
associated with motor control, and I can even limit those to just the common ones, and the
common ones I can view by groups.
Let’s narrow that down to just the ramps values.
The red numbers highlight differences between the on line and off-line values.
That makes it super easy to see what’s different.
Again, these on-line values are the real-time values.
If I change parameter 100 on the drive … you immediately see that change on the screen.
Likewise, if I change the parameter change on the screen, the parameter in the drive
changes when I hit return, click away or tab away from the cell.
So, changing single parameters is super quick and easy.
Suppose you want to change the parameters in bulk.
For example, let’s write all of these red ramp parameters to the drive – Well, I just
hit the write button - and it sends all the parameters in this list to the drive.
That’s important to understand.
This write button only writes the parameters in the currently selected list
For example, I’ll change these ramp parameters again … then select regulation.
I’ll change the regulation and hit the write button.
Now if I go back to the ramps parameters – ahh look at that! - they are unchanged.
Again, the write button only updates the parameters that in the currently selected list.
So, if I want to write all parameters, then I would click here to select all parameters
and THEN hit the write button.
It’s great that this WPS software gives me complete control over what gets written
to the drive.
This read button works the same way – it only reads the parameters in the currently
selected list.
Again, giving you complete control over which parameters you want to mess with.
What if you want to write only some of the parameters in a group?
Just select the parameters you don’t want to mess with and hit the minus button.
It removed them from this window, so now they won’t get written or read for that matter.
Want them back?
Hit the plus button and select the parameters you want back and hit ok.
This is cool – I can filter parameters shown.
I currently have all parameters selected, but suppose I only want to see parameters
that deal with “current.”
Look at that, the software narrows the list as I type.
How about fire mode?
Or braking?
Very cool.
That’s a huge time saver when I am trying to find a specific parameter AND it also clues
me in to other parameters I may not have been aware of.
I love that feature.
Parameters 910 and up are user parameters which are primarily used for the built in
Soft PLC.
Clicking on this button gives you total control over how those parameters are defined.
You can change the data type, the min the max, the default value if it is retentive
or not, read only, do you want the drive to ask for confirmation before implementing the
change, is it password protected and do you want it displayed in hex.
If you click on this guy, then you can also specify the units shown on the LCD display
and even the number of digits.
We’ll get into all of that in the video on the Soft PLC.
For now, just beware that you have TOTAL control over those parameters.
That’s amazing.
In the next video we’ll learn about configurations.
Configurations open up a whole bunch of handy features like Monitoring and configuration
wizards that show all the common things you want to know about the drive at a glance,
Monitoring windows that you can customize however you want, trending, diagnostics, and
a whole lot more.
In the meantime, click here to learn more about the WEG CFW300 variable frequency 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 new videos.