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champion 10hp 3ph 120gal compressor and 7.5kw vfd w/220 single phase input

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StaggerLee

Plastic
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
i bought a compressor at auction from a school district that had 3 phase power and a UPDATED-7-5KW-220V-10HP-34A-VFD-VARIABLE-FREQUENCY-DRIVE-INVERTER-CE-QUALITY/163048112957 from zbliving on ebay. i connected the 2 wires for the 220 and the 3 wires out to the magnetic starter on the compressor and the vfd runs up to 400 on the display and the magnetic swith just hums and nothing else happens. do i need a different switch now that i am on single phase? i should say also that i am not very well educated on vfd's. thanks Mike
 
Best if you post full data tag info from motor, and mfr and data tag from vfd. Pressure switch and coil on mag contactor should be powered by the line voltage, not the generated leg.

Edit: If it was me, I would manually engage contactor to see what happens, but you might want to wait for some other opinions first:D

Edit again: Just looked up that vfd, if not mistaken that is a china export cheapie, not sure you will find much love or advice for it here.
 
I would start with reviewing the manual, the motor is directly connected to the VFD terminals. You do not use a mag starter or thermal overload relay. You need to set the motor parameters in the VFD programming, if that is even possible with this VFD model. You are using the VFD at a fixed 60Hz frequency, not 400Hz so set the upper frequency programming parameter to 60 Hz. You would wire the pressure switch to turn the motor on and off via the VFD by using the low voltage VFD inputs. Last person that I helped who purchased one of these VFDs, it didn't work and was useless because of the limited motor programming parameters.
 
i kind of don't understand a lot of what has been said so far....i will try and post picsPICT0119.jpgIMG_3476.jpgPICT0113.jpg
this is temp wiring for test only
 
Compressors generally start hard. Generally there are provisions on the compressor to allow it to get spinning a little without a load. Better recip compressors use oil pressure so they hold the valves open until the oil pressure rises. A cheaper way is using a check valve at the tank and when the compressor shuts down it bleeds the air off the line between the compressor and the tank to allow it to get a rev or two without load. So, in addition to wiring check all these things out. Your setup may just not have the omph to get it going.

Personally, while I like the idea of converting lots of stuff to use vfd's, I would not run a compressor off a VFD. I know single phase 7 1/2 hp motors don't come cheap but I think this is one place I would put the money in a new motor.

I just saw that it is a 10hp motor. Even worse. Still, you could probably do a little pulley changing and it would run fine on a 7 1/2hp motor.
 
I appreciate everyones help...I obviously don't have a clue, but I'm thinking that I am finding out why I won the auction at $260...
 
Forget what I posted above, it is more applicable to an RPC, not a vfd, too much holiday cheer and not enough coffee yesterday morning. Looks to me like a pretty clean compressor for $260, I'd say you stole it at that price, only issue is the 3 ph motor if you don't have 3ph.

What are your needs for the compressor? Run a shop 24/7? Run shop 9-5 m-f? Evenings and Saturdays in the garage? Once a month to air up a tire? Your answer will allow us to give you some options.

Where are you located in Tx?
 
I have my 5 horse IR compressor on a vfd. You have to use the digital outputs on the vfd to control the start stop on the motor. No mag switch. Just use the pressure switch to open and close the start stop digital control circuit.
 
In order to run a 10HP 3PH compressor on 1phase 240V. You would need a 20Hp 3phase 240V VFD. And you also need a 60A 1phase circuit to power it.

The drive and circuit supply you have now is about half of what you need, using rules of thumb.

Do you have a supply source that big?
60A 230V 1Ph.

The VFD you have is a banned type to discuss here, and is half size of what you need, send it back. And reclaim your loot.

Use the search function to find many other examples of powering 3Ph compressor's from 1Ph supply.

SAF
 
i actually had read about the hy vfd's on this site when i was researching and didn't realize i was just buying the same thing with a different name. I believe i do have a 60amp breaker on that circuit, i will try and post pictures of the box. it is to supply my 1500sqft HotRod shop with air to sandblast, plasma cut, impact tools, (no lift yet), sand, paint. Whatever comes up.....i am retired and don't intend to turn a profit. Disabled Viet Nam Vet on a fixed income
also, when someone says set parameters, what does that mean? how would i do it?
 
If you are 100% sure that is going to be the only 3ph machine in the shop, your best option is either replace with a single phase motor, or run it off a vfd, and as mentioned you most likely need a 20hp vfd to run a 10hp motor, and name brand 20hp vfd's are not exactly cheap. I do not recommend it, but you might be able to get by using a static phase converter, but you would have to reduce motor pulley size and lower cut-off point on the pressure switch, both of which means you will have less air available. Rotary phase converter is not difficult to build, and you can choose between simple and cheap to one with lots of bells and whistles. Look up rotary phase converter/RPC on this site, there is lots of info. Simplest build I have seen was a static converter used to power a 3ph motor/idler, that powered most of the shop, to use the big lathe another idler was brought online before turning on lathe motor. Probably not an ideal system, no idea what the leg voltages were, but it worked. To run a 10hp air compressor you would need a 20hp idler for the RPC, and if you went this route you can run multiple machines from an rpc.

I will be back in Tx soon to take another stab at liquidating stuff in shop and storage, I know there is a project (needs capacitors) 10hp single phase motor under my workbench, and some 15, 20 and 30hp 3ph motors in storage. Probably only worth it if you are in cen-tex area and can pickup.
 
StaggerLee said:
also, when someone says set parameters, what does that mean? how would i do it?
Click to expand...

One of the problems with cheap VFD's is their poor documentation. I find the VFD's from Automation Direct provide enough of a "how to" to get beginners started at least.

VFD's are not plug and play. They do not simply convert single phase to 3 phase like a rotary phase converter. At a minimum you need to configure them to work with the motor that is drawing the power. You need to set the VFD parameters to match the frequency, voltage, amperage and RPM of your motor.

Once you do that you'll need to wire it to work with the pressure switches on the compressor. When the tank reaches pressure there is a switch to stop the motor. You'll need to wire this into the control inputs of the VFD. Same thing will need to be done for the low pressure switch.

Each VFD is slightly different as to how you set the parameters and how the control inputs are configured. Little experience with a cheap VFD and poor documentation will make this challenging. Do some googling, there are a lot of resources on the web. It's a bit much to ask someone to walk you through it step by step. At least until you have a better grasp of what you need to do.

Personally, I'd probably just use a rotary or static phase converter if I were you. Much easier setup and mostly plug and play.

Teryk



Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk
 
dalmatiangirl61 said:
If you are 100% sure that is going to be the only 3ph machine in the shop, your best option is either replace with a single phase motor, or run it off a vfd, and as mentioned you most likely need a 20hp vfd to run a 10hp motor, and name brand 20hp vfd's are not exactly cheap. I do not recommend it, but you might be able to get by using a static phase converter, but you would have to reduce motor pulley size and lower cut-off point on the pressure switch, both of which means you will have less air available. Rotary phase converter is not difficult to build, and you can choose between simple and cheap to one with lots of bells and whistles. Look up rotary phase converter/RPC on this site, there is lots of info. Simplest build I have seen was a static converter used to power a 3ph motor/idler, that powered most of the shop, to use the big lathe another idler was brought online before turning on lathe motor. Probably not an ideal system, no idea what the leg voltages were, but it worked. To run a 10hp air compressor you would need a 20hp idler for the RPC, and if you went this route you can run multiple machines from an rpc.

I will be back in Tx soon to take another stab at liquidating stuff in shop and storage, I know there is a project (needs capacitors) 10hp single phase motor under my workbench, and some 15, 20 and 30hp 3ph motors in storage. Probably only worth it if you are in cen-tex area and can pickup.
Click to expand...
i am north of houston on the 99 and 45......interested
 
A VFD on a compressor can work well and I have done it but this might be a bit outside for someone without experience because you have to configure the drive and all the settings. It can be done though. With the VFD, you will eliminate the contactor on the compressor entirely as the VFD takes care of that. You will decide how you want to "ramp up" to speed, and eliminate braking deceleration as it is not needed.

To get fancy, you may wish to look up the specs on the actual compressor pump to determine the speed range. It is normal to see pumps used in different HP, just at a different speed. I have one that can do 5HP on up to 10HP, which means you could potentially run at half steam or even run a lesser HP drive at a lower frequency (speed).

maybe outside the scope here but you can do some creative things with a VFD on a compressor. More than just 'on' and 'off' as they are typically built. Screw compressors are being done with variable speed with load sensing so they are not wasting electric to overpump the pressure. What you have to watch is the 'minimum speed' for oiling concerns.
 
It is a Champion R-30 pump on this size compressor it is rated for 7.5 - 15 Hp (pump RPM range is 575–1045). You can get the VFD to work on these models, it is just that the HY/clones although they state single phase input, they have questionable specs and reliability. I have seen them work, but reliability is a big if. I have always been told that static phase converters for compressors are a poor combination, as the motor power is derated by 1/3rd and compressors needs full Hp at maximum PSI. I would only consider it if you changed the motor pulley to a smaller size, the pump would run slower and be more quiet. VFDs in this size get pricey, possibly lower the maximum pump pressure to something like 160 PSI if using a static converter. Probably fine for intermittent use but not if it was in use continuously. It is a very good compressor I own the one.
 
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