Members GerryR Posted March 27 Members Report Posted March 27 I was told it could be done, just have never seen it done. From the article linked, it is very involved; unless you are running some large motors with very expensive VFDs (for which Rockwell Automation is noted for) I think it would be cheaper and safer to use one VFD per motor. But, thanks for the link; never to old to learn something new! Quote
Members Tigweldor Posted March 27 Members Report Posted March 27 (edited) I myself can only use one sewing machine at the time - so I see it as a very minor problem to unplug one socket and plug in another when switching to a different machine. After all - I´m a hobbyist and don´t have to run a commercial set up with multiple machines being run simultaneously. But yes, it is nicer to have a VFD for every machine - on the other hand, I have additional hobbies as well - coin sunk into one hobby will directly affect how much I can spend on my other projects. That is the way I look at it - some times you have to improvise and be frugal. Latter does not mean being cheap - it does however mean to consider/plan how available coin is spread most cost effective. And the chance of industrial tear downs with a booty of one or two "free" VFDs does not come along every day - my crystal ball is kind of cloudy right now as to when it will happen again. So I´m back to Craigs list in the meanwhile. Greetings Hans Edited March 27 by Tigweldor Quote
Digit Posted March 31 Author Report Posted March 31 The VFD I ordered has arrived and I hooked it up last weekend. I've left the original switch in the 3-phase circuit because on inspection it contained an overload protection circuit. I guess that when the motor does overload, the VFD would switch off earlier than the elements in the old switch have time to warm up, but having a backup protection doesn't hurt. It took some looking though the manual to find the few things I needed to configure among a gazillion possible settings, but now that I have it configured it's simply a matter of turning the motor on with the green button on the VFD and turning the motor off with the red button. Added bonus is the configurable wind-down time: I've set it to three seconds so that the motor is actively stopped instead of it taking over a minute of free spin when it was powered directly from the mains. I'll probably be adding easier-to-operate external start and stop buttons in the future and hide the VFD under the bench. Added bonus: the motor has some mid-winding leads (so an auto-transformer actually) going to the junction box to offer 12V AC to power an auxiliary incandescent light, which still works. @Tigweldor The VFD fan can be set to automatic, which means that it only runs when necessary, which apparently means from half a second after the motor is started to half a minute after the motor has been turned off. It doesn't bother me too much though; it makes about the same amount of noise as the motor itself and it will only be running for short amounts of time. I never have huge amounts of leather to skive. Quote
Members Tigweldor Posted April 6 Members Report Posted April 6 (edited) If you get a small bridge rectifier, you can run a 12 Volt LED strip/lamp of your 12V AC motor output. The 10 Amp model is more than enough. They do not cost much - here just an example : https://www.ebay.de/itm/196165851973 Greetings Hans Edited April 6 by AlZilla Removed tracking Quote
Members Tigweldor Posted April 6 Members Report Posted April 6 (edited) @AlZilla ---- thanks for shortening the over long Ebay link --- I usually do not like to post such links as the seller may delete the product and then the link is useless. Same are my thoughts on uploading pics from a third party photo storage site - I have been on many a forum on other sites that only show a 404 when you click on a link/pic because the poster has deleted membership or his pics from that third party site. Greetings Hans Edited April 6 by Tigweldor Quote
Members dikman Posted April 6 Members Report Posted April 6 If you simply rectify 12v ac to dc you will end up with something like 16v dc, just be sure your LED can run off more than 12v dc. Quote Machines wot I have - Singer 51W59; Singer 331K4; Seiko STH-8BLD; Pfaff 335; CB4500. Chinese shoe patcher; Singer 201K (old hand crank)
Digit Posted April 7 Author Report Posted April 7 On 4/6/2025 at 5:08 AM, Tigweldor said: If you get a small bridge rectifier, you can run a 12 Volt LED strip/lamp of your 12V AC motor output. I've got several of those lying around. One of them is currently powering a workplace heater (a Chinese Webasto clone) off a tranfsormer. As long as the incandescent bulb keeps working I'll use that one. I'm not a fan of flickering LED lights (even with a cap on the rectifier they still flicker). Quote
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