How to Control a VFD with a Maple Systems HMI + PLC Combo Unit

Wiring our Devices

To start, we’ll be sure to wire our devices for Modbus over an RS-485 connection. Notice the cable jumps on the HMC-side between the

Enabling Modbus communication on the VFD

We’ll Power on the VFD, navigate into our parameters, and then set the following parameters:

B1-01 set to 2 (Enable Modbus Communication Control of Frequency)
B1-02 set to 2 (Enable Modbus Communication Control of Run Commands)

Setting Serial Communication Parameter

Then we’ll set some of the H5 parameters to specify our serial settings:

H5-01 set to 1 (Drive node address (Slave ID) of 1)
H5-02 set to 3 (Communication speed of 9600bps)
H5-03 set to 0 (Parity Selection of No Parity)
H5-04 set to 0 (Communication Error Stop of Ramp to Stop)

Multi-function Digital Inputs

The GA500 VFD has seven multi-function digital input commands that can be used to customize your motor controls. We’ll set two of them to enable forward and reverse jog commands.

H1-01 set to 12 (Forward Jog)
H1-02 set to 13 (Reverse Jog)

Alarm Display at External 24V Power Supply

Finally we’ll configure our LED display the way we want it.

o2-26 set to 0 (Alarm Display disabled when only external 24V power supplied – “Ready” LED light will be flashing when “motor” is ready)

Note: The parameters listed are only meant to establish communication with the PLC and control the VFD function commands of the driver – this example does not include a motor or the motor parameter needed to be adjusted for a three-phase motor.

Create a new HMC project

We’ll start by creating a new MAPware-7000 project. I’ll be using an HMC4070 for this tutorial.

Initialize local VFD bit addresses

We’ll then navigate to the tags database and initialize a handful of tags in our local HMC associated with various controls on the VFD. We’ll want to set 4 bit addresses for forward and reverse run, as well as forward and reverse jog. Then we’ll want to create a word register for the frequency reference.

Tie our local tags to screen objects.

Now we’ll design our screen to display and control our VFD values from within our HMC project.

I won’t go into too much detail about how to set this up, but feel free to download our sample project for this tutorial to get a copy of this HMC project

Initialize a Modbus Node in MAPware-7000

We’ll start by creating a new network node in our MAPware-7000 project by navigating to “Network Config > Com1” right clicking and selecting “Add…”

If we were configuring this for an Ethernet connection, we’d use Com3 (Ethernet) instead

Configure our Modbus Node to communicate with the VFD

Then from here, we’ll configure our new node as Modbus RTU (Unit as Master) and making sure to match the serial settings we set on our VFD (9600bps, no parity, 8-bit data, and 1 stop bit). Also be sure to

Adding Modbus Tags to MAPware-7000

Now we’ll create tags in MAPware-7000 associated with all of the Modbus addresses we’ve outlined on the VFD for controlling our motor.

Note that to assign a boolean tag to a single bit of a 4x register, you’ll need to select the “Coil or Bit addressed Register” radio button when defining a “Holding Register” tag.

Transferring our Local data to our Modbus Tags

Next we’ll want to navigate to our “Tasks” and add Global tasks to copy the local versions of our VFD tags, to their Modbus counterparts. We’ll use the “Copy HMI Block to HMI/PLC Block” task for our frequency tag (our word tag), and we’ll use “Copy Tag B to Tag A” tasks for the boolean addresses.

Programming Some Light Logic

Now we’ll go into our “Logic Blocks” and create a main logic block. This will mainly be to attach some functionality to our “local start” bit, “toggle reverse” bit, and our “localStop” bit, while adding some safeguards that prevent both forward and reverse from being triggered at the same time.

Navigating to the HMC System Settings

Now we’ll set our HMC’s IP address to something in the same subnet as our PLC. We’ll do this by pressing and holding the top-left corner of the HMC to go into the HMC system settings. Then we’ll click the “Network Settings” sidebar item.

Configuring the HMC’s IP Address

In the Network settings, we’ll want to set our HMC to a static IP address, and change our HMC’s IP address and subnet mask to what we desire.

Preparing the Project for Download

Now we’ll go back into our MAPware-7000 project, navigate to “Tools > PC Communication Mode”, select “Ethernet” and change our base IP address to the IP address we just set our HMC to.

Downloading our Project

Now we’ll make sure our HMC is connected and powered on, and click the download button in MAPware-7000. After compiling the project, we’ll make sure the IP address on the download window is correct, and download our project.

If this is your first time downloading to your HMC device, you’ll want to download the “Firmware” to your combo device first.