# ETEL TMA Motors and Delta VFD C2000 Controller



## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Help, 

I've run into a problem and can't yet find a way around it. I am using 4 ETEL TMA motors and a Delta VFD C2000 controller. The motors are synchronous permanent magnet high torque motors. When I set up the controller for PM motors the controller will not work. When I set it up for IM motors it runs fine but has very little torque. The manufacturer has not responded.

Any information, ideas or solutions are greatly appreciated.

Tim


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## subcooledheatpump (Mar 5, 2012)

Have you tried adjusting the Volts/hertz ratio? or torque boost? have you tried the autotuning feature?

At what speed is the motor running when you get "very little torque"? Measure the voltage at the terminals and compare to the motors' rated voltage


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## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try those. The motors are low on torque from low speed to high speed. At start they won't move with out manually rotating the tires.


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

37Dodge said:


> Thanks for the ideas. I'll try those. The motors are low on torque from low speed to high speed. At start they won't move with out manually rotating the tires.


Permanent Magnet Synchronous AC motors exhibit extremely low starting torque unless the inverter knows the exact rotor position so it sounds to me like you haven't installed and/or enabled the position feedback encoder (or resolver). 

In addition, it also sounds like your VFD doesn't do "sensorless" vector control - which isn't a bad thing, really, as this scheme is (in my experience) decidedly inferior at delivering high torque at low RPM - so you don't even have that option, but if you do then you should see a marked improvement in starting/low speed torque (but not nearly as good as you will get with the proper encoder/resolver and "sensored FOC").


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## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Thanks, 

You've given me a lot to work with.

Tim


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## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Hi,

I found out that the Delta Controller is incomplete and need a card and a resolver. The card I can get but I can't find a resolver that will work. 

Help?

Tim


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

37Dodge said:


> ...
> I found out that the Delta Controller is incomplete and need a card and a resolver. The card I can get but I can't find a resolver that will work.
> 
> Help?


According to this datasheet you can use an encoder, which I strongly suggest as it will be much less expensive and much easier to find than a resolver. You'll have to figure out which encoder to buy yourself, however, as you need to determine, among other things, where and how to mount it.

Is there a reason you are trying to use an industrial VFD which you don't seem too familiar with in the first place in your EV?

EDIT - I just noticed you are trying to drive 4 separate PM synchronous motors with 1 VFD. That ain't gonna work.


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## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Thanks for the information. I'm using Delta because it is the least expensive controller I found that the manufacturer said would run the ETEL TMA PM Synchronous motors. I have the motors set up in parallel. Two motors attached to each rear wheel. The ETEL tech helped me set it up and assured me it would work. But then I gave him the data on the Delta and he said that it would work too. The controller will operate all the motors in the IM mode.


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## subcooledheatpump (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm not suprised you're having torque control problems with 4 motors and 1 inverter. How are you planning to use these motors? If you're using them all on one shaft it might not be so bad, but if you are trying to run 4 motors seperately, like one on each wheel, controlling them would almost be impossible with 1 inverter, especially since they are synchronous. You will need an encoder for each motor and an inverter for each motor if you want them to work.


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## 37Dodge (May 27, 2011)

Hi,

Right now I have 2 motors to a shaft attached to each rear wheel. I could set all four on one shaft if needed. The ETEL tech told me that if the shaft splines were lined up and the stators were lined up that two shafts would work for the two sets of motors.??? with one controller and one resolver/encoder???


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## subcooledheatpump (Mar 5, 2012)

lining all the motors up might work but the shafts would have to be in the exact same position for all the motors. The controller must understand which coil/phase to power first, so if one motors shaft was at an angle with the other motor, then the two motors would only be fighting each other.


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## richard525 (Aug 1, 2012)

Tim,

I think you can do a "auto tuning" for this controller. This will help the controller to know more about the motor, and it may perform better.

Richard


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## rose001wesley (Jun 22, 2013)

I have also this problem regarding the same method the author shared in here, I also got in touch with my local Delta dealer and they said the system would runs fine. I have auto tuning this Delta VFD by myself but got some problems.


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