HI David,

The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD.

KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible.

KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See:

http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm

Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working.

The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:

 http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY

If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control.

If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier.

In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication.

A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941

http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html

HTH

Regards

TK

Group: DynoMotion	Message: 9112	From: Hugh Sontag	Date: 2/5/2014
Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD

I'm working on the same thing - trying to control my Huanyang 2.2 KW spindle speed via RS-485. I connected a RS-485 converter to the KFLOP UART I/O, and I can send bytes out via the UART, and receive them back via the RS-485 chip, but so far, I've not been able to get the VFD to accept any commands. This despite using the examples in the manual. I've tried both ASCII commands with LRC, and RTU commands with CRC, at both 38400 and 9600 baud, with no luck yet. Hugh On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Tom Kerekes <tk@...> wrote:   HI David, The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD. KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible. KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See: http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working. The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:  http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control. If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier. In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication. A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941 http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9113 From: Russ Larson Date: 2/5/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Hugh,   The Huanyang VFD is not fully modbus compliant.  If you search the MACH3 forum you will find that someone has documented how they implemented the modbus command structure.  That person documented his findings and implemented a plugin for Mach3 that controls that VFD.  If you are using the MACH3 plugin for KFLOP you might be able to control using that plugin.  If you are using the Dynomotion CNC program you will need to write a c program that follows the exchange documented on the MACH3 forum.  Hope this helps point you in the right Direction.   Russ Larson     From: DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Hugh Sontag Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2014 5:51 PM To: DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [DynoMotion] RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD     I'm working on the same thing - trying to control my Huanyang 2.2 KW spindle speed via RS-485. I connected a RS-485 converter to the KFLOP UART I/O, and I can send bytes out via the UART, and receive them back via the RS-485 chip, but so far, I've not been able to get the VFD to accept any commands.   This despite using the examples in the manual. I've tried both ASCII commands with LRC, and RTU commands with CRC, at both 38400 and 9600 baud, with no luck yet.   Hugh     On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 11:30 AM, Tom Kerekes <tk@...> wrote:   HI David,   The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD.   KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible.   KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See:   http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm   Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working.   The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:    http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY   If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control.   If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier.   In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication.   A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links:   https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941   http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html   HTH Regards TK   From: "david.m.stevenson@..." <david.m.stevenson@...> To: DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 6:31 AM Subject: [DynoMotion] RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD     Hi Tom, I was hoping you could give some insight into connecting my KFLOP via the RJ45 connector to a VFD from Emerson which also uses an RJ45. The drive's documentation says it supports both the RS485 and RS422 interface, as well as Modbus. Would I install the virtual com port driver as shown on your website? Which programs would need to be run to output speed commands to the VFD? It will be driving a spindle motor. Thank you in advance, David.     Group: DynoMotion Message: 9120 From: ericncn Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Yup, that Kflop user was me :-) I've got some private message asking clarifications... I'lll gladly share my little experience on this list if it can be of any help. I'm a real newbye on all this and I always make questions so if in this case I can give something back to the community, I'm more than happy to do it. I am using a free utility called "modpoll" that implements the modbus protocol and talks over a (definable) COM port.  I've bought a USB to modpoll converter that connects to the VFD on one side and to a PC USB port on the other side. Its drivers create a virtual COM port and the modpoll utility manages to send commands over it. Once tested extensively manually (calling the modpoll utility from the command line and seeing what the VFD was doing) I then interfaced it to the KmotionCNC program thanks to Tom who made yet-another-patch allowing to pass the speed parameter to the external utility. Actually as the speed unit was different between KmotionCNC and the VFD I added another software layer between KmotionCNC and the modpoll utility consisting in a small C program I've written by modifying an example provided by Tom, which takes the speed parameter, converts it and calls modpoll. That's all. Since then I'm happily using the S, M3, M4 and M5 commands from within my milling programs and the best part of it is I didn't have to mess with soldering chips, cable noise etc. Everything done at software level (except for buying an USB-modbus adapter). By the way I had some trouble compiling my own C program, could somebody point me to where could I download the free version of VisualStudio that is used to work with KmotionCNC ? It looks like it's an old version I can't find anywhere.... EC ---In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, <tk@...> wrote: HI David, The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD. KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible. KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See: http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working. The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:  http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control. If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier. In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication. A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941 http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9121 From: David Stevenson Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Hi All, Thanks for all of your guidance and input. EC, I downloaded the modpoll utility you noted and am currently trying to get it to run on my W8.1 64bit laptop. I had been exploring using the TCP/IP connection on the computer because any latency problems Tom mentioned are not an issue in this machine. I have not yet gotten very far with this, but it seems you have solved the problem I am having, so it would probably be better to use your experience rather then the re-invent route. Would you be willing to share your programs? Tom had previously pointed me to Visual Studio Express which is a free program, but I'm not sure if it will work for your purposes. Thank you, David. On 2/6/2014 10:30 AM, ericnc@... wrote:   Yup, that Kflop user was me :-) I've got some private message asking clarifications... I'lll gladly share my little experience on this list if it can be of any help. I'm a real newbye on all this and I always make questions so if in this case I can give something back to the community, I'm more than happy to do it. I am using a free utility called "modpoll" that implements the modbus protocol and talks over a (definable) COM port.  I've bought a USB to modpoll converter that connects to the VFD on one side and to a PC USB port on the other side. Its drivers create a virtual COM port and the modpoll utility manages to send commands over it. Once tested extensively manually (calling the modpoll utility from the command line and seeing what the VFD was doing) I then interfaced it to the KmotionCNC program thanks to Tom who made yet-another-patch allowing to pass the speed parameter to the external utility. Actually as the speed unit was different between KmotionCNC and the VFD I added another software layer between KmotionCNC and the modpoll utility consisting in a small C program I've written by modifying an example provided by Tom, which takes the speed parameter, converts it and calls modpoll. That's all. Since then I'm happily using the S, M3, M4 and M5 commands from within my milling programs and the best part of it is I didn't have to mess with soldering chips, cable noise etc. Everything done at software level (except for buying an USB-modbus adapter). By the way I had some trouble compiling my own C program, could somebody point me to where could I download the free version of VisualStudio that is used to work with KmotionCNC ? It looks like it's an old version I can't find anywhere.... EC ---In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, <tk@...> wrote: HI David, The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD. KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible. KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See: http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working. The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:  http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control. If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier. In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication. A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941 http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9124 From: ericncn Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Attachments : ScaleS-9124.cpp Yes, sure, here you find attached the program I'm using. Thats's actually a sample program provided by Tom where I just modified a few lines in order to call the modpoll utility and pass the parameters that work for me. Pay attention: I thought it was more useful to post it complete and unmodified but this will NOT! work for you. You have a different VFD, different commands, you HAVE to edit at least these two lines: where you se: IntValue = (int)( 10 * (FloatParam/51) ); // VFD takes speed in Hz*10 you have to change it with your actual conversion ratio from Kmotion speed unit to your VFD speed unit (and take into account your gear ratio or puley ratio if any) and where you see: sprintf_s(s,100,"modpoll -0 -1 -r 8502 COM5 %d",IntValue); you have to edit it and replace with the modpoll command that would work for you. I suggest try it with the command line first, and put it in the program only after you are sure it works. Regarding the Visual Studio Express, I would really happy is somebody could tell me where to download the appropriate version for working with KmotionCNC.... Regards, EC ---In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, <david.m.stevenson@...> wrote: Hi All, Thanks for all of your guidance and input. EC, I downloaded the modpoll utility you noted and am currently trying to get it to run on my W8.1 64bit laptop. I had been exploring using the TCP/IP connection on the computer because any latency problems Tom mentioned are not an issue in this machine. I have not yet gotten very far with this, but it seems you have solved the problem I am having, so it would probably be better to use your experience rather then the re-invent route. Would you be willing to share your programs? Tom had previously pointed me to Visual Studio Express which is a free program, but I'm not sure if it will work for your purposes. Thank you, David. On 2/6/2014 10:30 AM, ericnc@... wrote:   Yup, that Kflop user was me :-) I've got some private message asking clarifications... I'lll gladly share my little experience on this list if it can be of any help. I'm a real newbye on all this and I always make questions so if in this case I can give something back to the community, I'm more than happy to do it. I am using a free utility called "modpoll" that implements the modbus protocol and talks over a (definable) COM port.  I've bought a USB to modpoll converter that connects to the VFD on one side and to a PC USB port on the other side. Its drivers create a virtual COM port and the modpoll utility manages to send commands over it. Once tested extensively manually (calling the modpoll utility from the command line and seeing what the VFD was doing) I then interfaced it to the KmotionCNC program thanks to Tom who made yet-another-patch allowing to pass the speed parameter to the external utility. Actually as the speed unit was different between KmotionCNC and the VFD I added another software layer between KmotionCNC and the modpoll utility consisting in a small C program I've written by modifying an example provided by Tom, which takes the speed parameter, converts it and calls modpoll. That's all. Since then I'm happily using the S, M3, M4 and M5 commands from within my milling programs and the best part of it is I didn't have to mess with soldering chips, cable noise etc. Everything done at software level (except for buying an USB-modbus adapter). By the way I had some trouble compiling my own C program, could somebody point me to where could I download the free version of VisualStudio that is used to work with KmotionCNC ? It looks like it's an old version I can't find anywhere.... EC ---In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, <tk@...> wrote: HI David, The FTDI Virtual Com Port driver is a different way to have PC applications command KFLOP via USB.  It wouldn't apply to controlling a VFD. KFLOP can't output serial communication data out its JP5 RJ45 connector.  Also the voltage levels and protocol would be incompatible. KFLOP does have a serial communication UART connected to JP7.  See: http://dynomotion.com/Help/RS232/RS232.htm Modbus is fairly difficult to get to work.  There are electrical interface issues, protocol issues, baud rates, master/slave, configuration registers, etc...  and if anything is wrong it just doesn't work and it is hard to diagnose the reason.  So it helps to have a scope and other tools to get some information on what parts are working. The first step would be to decide whether to connect the VFD to the PC or to KFLOP.  Do you need CSS?  See this video:  http://youtu.be/nWrntLmdJqY If so then the VFD should be connected directly to KFLOP for real-time control. If you don't require CSS and only occasionally change the speed then connecting to the PC is a possibility and probably easier. In either case it might be worth wile to use the PC first to test the communication. A KFLOP User found a simple PC utility to send a Modbus command. See if you can get that to work.  You might need to buy a USB based RS422 com port.  You didn't include iformation on your VFD.  See these links: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7941 http://www.modbusdriver.com/modpoll.html HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9125 From: Tom Kerekes Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD [1 Attachment] Hi EC, Regarding Visual Studio Express:  It isn't clear what you want to do.  Actually modify KMotionCNC or change the little command line program to work with KMotionCNC?   To modify KMotionCNC our projects use Visual Studio Standard 2008.  Obtain a copy of that for the simplest result.  These projects upgrade to VS2010 (and maybe VS2012) in a pretty straightforward manner.  Except it often directs the compiled output to different directories and wont run because the other needed DLLs are not found.  Changing the Output Directory in Properites to the <>\KMotion\Release or Debug directories (like it was in the VS2008 project) will solve that.  KMotionCNC makes use of the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) which are not supported in the Express versions so that won't compile like the .NET examples.  A User reported that there is a download available to work around that.  Googling I found the download page for VS2010 Express: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-2010-express Searching the Group I found this: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7128 HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9126 From: Tom Kerekes Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD [1 Attachment] Hi EC, Regarding Visual Studio Express:  It isn't clear what you want to do.  Actually modify KMotionCNC or change the little command line program to work with KMotionCNC?   To modify KMotionCNC our projects use Visual Studio Standard 2008.  Obtain a copy of that for the simplest result.  These projects upgrade to VS2010 (and maybe VS2012) in a pretty straightforward manner.  Except it often directs the compiled output to different directories and wont run because the other needed DLLs are not found.  Changing the Output Directory in Properites to the <>\KMotion\Release or Debug directories (like it was in the VS2008 project) will solve that.  KMotionCNC makes use of the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) which are not supported in the Express versions so that won't compile like the .NET examples.  A User reported that there is a download available to work around that.  Googling I found the download page for VS2010 Express: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-2010-express Searching the Group I found this: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7128 HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9127 From: ericncn Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD [1 Attachment] I would have liked to compile the whole KmotionCNC as is, with no modifications or conversions. Then I could have tried small customizations to the program. If I understand correctly I need  Visual Studio Standard 2008 for that or (as per your link) Visual Studio Express 2012 + the patch for adding the MFC. That's terribly heavy for the computer attached to the milling machine. Isn't there a (free) Visual Studio Express 2008 ? Thank you EC ---In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, <tk@...> wrote: Hi EC, Regarding Visual Studio Express:  It isn't clear what you want to do.  Actually modify KMotionCNC or change the little command line program to work with KMotionCNC?   To modify KMotionCNC our projects use Visual Studio Standard 2008.  Obtain a copy of that for the simplest result.  These projects upgrade to VS2010 (and maybe VS2012) in a pretty straightforward manner.  Except it often directs the compiled output to different directories and wont run because the other needed DLLs are not found.  Changing the Output Directory in Properites to the <>\KMotion\Release or Debug directories (like it was in the VS2008 project) will solve that.  KMotionCNC makes use of the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) which are not supported in the Express versions so that won't compile like the .NET examples.  A User reported that there is a download available to work around that.  Googling I found the download page for VS2010 Express: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-2010-express Searching the Group I found this: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DynoMotion/conversations/topics/7128 HTH Regards TK Group: DynoMotion Message: 9129 From: Tom Kerekes Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Hi EC, I don't know.  I Googled and found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15318560/visual-c-2008-express-download-link-dead I'm not sure if the MFC download is compatible. I think you can buy VS2008 Standard for < $100. Regards K Group: DynoMotion Message: 9137 From: daveymahomh600e Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Thanks EC, Which adapter did you use to connect the drive? David Group: DynoMotion Message: 9138 From: ericncn Date: 2/6/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD It's made by Schneider. Schneider site is a bit difficult to navigate and this object is misleadingly referred as "USB cable" or "CAN Open cable" or things like that. Anyway its part number is  TCSMCNAM3M002P . I was a bit lucky with it, despite the way they name it and the lack of documentation (they sell it as a "cable" needed by their software application), it's actually a general purpose device which drivers create a standard virtual COM port on the PC that can be accessed even by applications other than theirs, and it accepts commands in same protocol as "modbus" expects to. EC Group: DynoMotion Message: 9153 From: David Stevenson Date: 2/7/2014 Subject: Re: RJ45 Connection to Emerson Commander VFD Thanks EC, It's really too bad we can't use the network jack on the PC for the connection. David On 2/6/2014 4:19 PM, ericnc@... wrote:   It's made by Schneider. Schneider site is a bit difficult to navigate and this object is misleadingly referred as "USB cable" or "CAN Open cable" or things like that. Anyway its part number is  TCSMCNAM3M002P . I was a bit lucky with it, despite the way they name it and the lack of documentation (they sell it as a "cable" needed by their software application), it's actually a general purpose device which drivers create a standard virtual COM port on the PC that can be accessed even by applications other than theirs, and it accepts commands in same protocol as "modbus" expects to. EC