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International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE)
Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022, pp. 3564~3571
ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v12i4.pp3564-3571  3564
Journal homepage: http://ijece.iaescore.com
Personal computer/programmable logic controller based
variable frequency drive training platform using WxPython and
PyModbus
Jawad Radhi Mahmood, Ramzy Salim Ali
Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
Article Info ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received Aug 27, 2021
Revised Mar 16, 2022
Accepted Mar 30, 2022
Variable frequency drive (VFD) is one of the key elements in industrial
field. It is used to match the three-phase induction motor’s speed and torque
to the industrial field process requirements in addition to energy saving and
efficiency improvement. This important role of the VFD asks for the
development of an efficient training and cost effective platform for the
electrical engineering students, technicians, and maintenance personals. This
paper introduces a user-friendly platform through which the users can
understand and practice the configuration of the various parameters of the
VFD unit. This platform uses two computing devices to deal with the VFD;
these are the personal computer (PC) and the programmable logic controller
(PLC) which is also a computer but designed to operate in wide range of
temperature and humidity and can accept digital and analog signals. The PC
uses WxPython (cross-platform graphical user interfaces (GUI) toolkit of
Python programming language) and PyModbus communication utility to
play the role of the human machine interfacing (which allows the user to
execute the communication requirements and at the same time provide an
oscilloscope like facility to display the platform response in real time mode
or history recorded mode). With this platform, the VFD’s parameters
configuration is done via the RS-485 communication port using Modbus
recommandation temporaire d'utilisation (RTU) communication protocol.
Keywords:
Programmable logic controller
PyModbus
Training platform
Variable frequency drive
WxPython
This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license.
Corresponding Author:
Ramzy Salim Ali
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Basrah
Basrah, 610001, Iraq
Email: ramzy.ali@uobasrah.edu.iq
1. INTRODUCTION
Variable frequency drives (VFDs) are microprocessor controlled inverters used for controlling the
rotational speed of alternating current (AC) induction motors by controlling the frequency of the electric
power supplied to the induction motors which take about two third of the electrical energy in the word
[1]–[4]. Industrially, these may be called adjustable frequency drives, variable speed drives, AC drive, micro
drive, or inverter drive [5], [6]. From the point of view of supported functions, to some extent, one can say
they have a lot to share. The parameters codes and method of modification are brand dependent. So too well
understand these key products and be ready to deal with any one of them, one must focus on understanding
the physical meaning of the control terminals supported functions, the linear and nonlinear relationships
between the VFD’s output voltage and frequency, the protection functions, the speed control functions, the
torque control functions, and the communication functions.
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 
Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood)
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From the point of view of hardware, the VFD is microprocessor controlled three-phase inverter for
which the direct current (DC) link voltage is supplied either using single or three-phase rectifiers followed by
filter stage consisting of dc link choke or reactor and capacitor filter. This means it is a combination of
passive power circuit components and active power electronic switching devices that are driven or controlled
by microprocessor based control system. From the point of view of functions, they are used to control the
speed and torque of drive machinery and to meet particular starting and stopping requirements [7].
The programmable logic controller (PLC) always shares the VFD the industrial activities
control [8]–[10]. It is a microprocessor-based, solid-state, single processor device [11]. It has the ability to
accept digital input signals coming from the industrial field input devices like proximity switches and shaft
encoders [12]–[14]. It also can accept analog signal like that coming from the analog output of the VFD. It
also has the ability to generate and send digital and analog driving signals for the industrial field output
devices like the VFDs. PLC comes with built-in communication ports usually 9-pin RS232, RS-422, RS-485,
and Ethernet [15]. From the point of view of operation modes, the PLC widely used modes of operation are
the repetitive operation mode and the interrupt mode. The repetitive or scan mode of operation is the main
operation mode that each PLC should have at least one of it. In this mode, the user application program is
repetitively executed from its start statement to its end statement as long as the PLC is in the run mode. Here
the program execution does not depend upon any condition. The interrupt operation mode is event driven
one. In this mode of operation, the user application program includes more than one program. Mainly, it
consists of a main scan program and one or more interrupt service or event driven programs. The interrupt
service program execution does not occur automatically. Its execution is always stipulated to the occurrence
of a certain interrupt signal. When an interrupt signal takes place, the currently executed program is
suspended and the interrupt program is executed. From the point of view of programming languages, all the
PLCs support ladder language and some of them in addition to the ladder language support function block
and/or structured text-programming languages. In this work, the structured text programming language has
been used. This language is very close to the well-known Pascal language.
WxPython is a cross platform for Python programming language. Its library allows programmers to
develop highly graphical user interfaces (GUI) for their programs using menu bars, menus, panels, static text,
text ctrl, radio item, check item, button, toggle button, and combo box. In WxPython all the elements of a
GUI are contained within top level windows such as wx.Frame or wx.Dialog [16].
Modbus protocol is widely used in industrial field. It supports client/server communication between
field devices such as PLCs, VFDs, and smart input/output units. Modbus devices are provided with well-
defined Modbus memory map. PyModbus is a full Modbus protocol implementation. It uses asynchronous
communication over TCP/IP connection [17]. It allows reading of data from PLCs and writing data to PLCs
over Ethernet connection [18]. The PLCs data can be accessed as bit(s) and word(s).
Because of its key role in industry, the VFD gained the interest of researchers; Liang et al. [19]
investigated the operation and starting of three phase induction motors driven by variable frequency drives.
They stated, operation of induction motors with VFDs provides flexible speed control and to produce the
same starting voltage as the cross-line starting for high inertia loads, the required starting voltage at the motor
terminal shows large variation at the starting frequency of VFDs between 2-10 Hz and this explain why
VFDs are provided with voltage boost function. Jiang and Zhang [20], used VFD and PLC to build speed
regulation system for elevator. With this combination they found, the elevator reliability and passenger
comfort had been improved in addition to reduced maintenance and power consumption. Mahmood et al.
[21] developed a PLC-HMI driven platform to control the speed of VFD fed three-phase induction motor
using a fuzzy logic controller and the traditional proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. Jasim et al.
[22] introduced an Arduino based speed controller for three-phase induction motor through the adoption of
the constant voltage to frequency ratio (V/f) operation mode of the AC drive. Ramesh et al. [23] show that
conservation of energy for hydraulic clamping system in CNC machine can be achieved when using a VFD
driven pump. Puja and Syed [24] stated that VFD allows to control the induction motor with the reduction in
power consumption. Gómez et al. [25] studied the feasibility of energy saving by implementing flow
regulation at constant load in feed water pumps in a sugar industry. Jasim et al. [26] used four VFD units to
control the speed of four submersible water pump and the light intensity of four lamps (each VFD controls
one pump and one lamp) according to the voltage control signals derived from the IIR filter.
The VFD is provided with simple keypad to configure its parameters. This keypad is not robust, but
it is suitable and efficient for industrial applications in which the VFD is configured during the design phase
and may be modified in the commissioning and running phase. It cannot be used for training applications
which exposes the keypad’s keys for large number of finger pressing in addition to the time period required
for each parameter modification or setting. To overcome this situation and create a practical VFD training
platform, the proposed platform should have the following features: i) having a user-friendly educational
software utility to practice the VFD’s parameter configuration, ii) provide real time monitoring for the
behavior of the VFD under parameters changes, iii) provide history recording utility for the VFD’s voltages
 ISSN: 2088-8708
Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022: 3564-3571
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(DC link voltage and output voltage), output frequency, Output current, and torque in addition to the shaft
speed, and iv) allow the experimental understanding of the VFD built-in PID utility.
2. THE PROPOSED PLATFORM HARDWARE AND THE WXPYTHON BASED GRAPHICAL
USER INTERFACE
To fulfill the requirements of the work’s aim, the platform’s overall construction has been divided
into two parts. These are the hardware part and the software one. The details of the platform hardware setup
and the graphical user interface based WxPython are will explain in the next subsections.
2.1. The platform’s hardware setup
The hardware part consists of a personal computer, PLC panel, VFD unit, two induction motor,
shaft encoder, and capacitor bank as shown in Figure 1. The specification of the various components is listed
in Table 1. The hardware wiring is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Hardware setup
Table 1. Hardware components
Component Description
PC HP, Processor: Intel® Core ™ i5
PLC XEC-DR28UA/DC
VFD: LSLV00-155100-4EONNS Input: 380-480 V, 3 phases, 50/60 Hz, HD=4.2A, ND=5.5 A.
Output: 0-Input voltage, 3 phases, 0.1-400HzHz, HD=4 A, ND=5.1 A.
3-Phase Induction Motor (M1) 220/380 V, Delta/Star, 0.75 KW, 3.2/1.6 A, 2845 r.p.m
3-Phase Induction Motor (M2) 220/380 V, Delta/Star, 0.75 KW, 3.55/2.05 A, 1390 r.p.m
Capacitor Bank 3×20 µF ;star connected
ABL8RDS24030 A 24 VDC, 3 A, power supply
Resistive Load 6×100 W lamps
Magnetic Contactors: LC1D09 Two magnetic contactors.
2.2. The WxPython based graphical user interface
The operation screen of the proposed training platform is shown Figure 3. From the figure, it can be
noticed how user configures the LSLV-S100 VFD’s parameters, run the VFD for driving the three-phase
induction motors, and monitor or record the current, voltage, and frequency supplied to the motor. In addition
to that, also the shaft speed, torque, and DC link voltage may be configured.
2.3. Method
The proposed work anchored on two internal PLC’s communication networks. These are the
computer network (Cnet) and the fast Ethernet network (FEnet). The former, the Cnet, has been used to
communicate the PLC with the VFD (LSLV-S100). For this network, the peer-to-peer (P2P) has been
selected as operation mode whereas the Modbus RTU Client has been selected as P2P driver. The read and
write areas for this network are listed in Table 2. The later, the FEnet has been used to establish the
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 
Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood)
3567
communication between the PLC and the PC. For this one, the Modbus server has been adopted as server
mode with %IX0.0.0 as bit read area start address, %QX0.0.0 as bit write area start address, %MW0 as word
read area start address, and %MW100 as word write area start address for the Modbus settings.
Figure 2. Hardware wiring
Figure 3. Operation screen
 ISSN: 2088-8708
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The VFD’s parameters reading and setting is executed by the WxPython user program through the
event driven concept. The WxPython user programed controls the conditional flags and the PLC memory
areas listed in Table 2 to set or read the VFD’s parameters via the PLC as shown in Figure 4. The PLC uses
its high-speed counter instruction to calculate the motor running speed and feed this speed to WxPython user
program. It also uses it digital to analog and analog to digital facilities to control the VFD (via its V1
terminal) and read its analog output (AO). The real time mentoring and recording of the VFD’s output
variables (voltage, frequency, current, DC link voltage, and torque) and the motor shaft speed are executed
making use of the WxpPython timer event.
Table 2. The PLC and the VFD Modbus memory address
Index Conditional
Flag
PLC Memory
Start address
S100
Start address -1
Data
Size
Parameters
0 %MW118.8 %MW12 0X3030F 8 Current, Frequency, r.p.m, feedbackspeed, Vout,
DC link voltage, power, and torque
1 %MW119.9 %MW120 0X41105 2 Command and frequency reference sources
2 %MW119.1 %MW126 0X0004 1 Command frequency
3 %MW119.2 %MW140 0X41540 5 P1 to P5 terminals function settings
4 %MW119.3 %MW40 0X31540 5 P1 to P5 terminals function reading
5 %MW119.4 %MW30 0X30006 2 Acceleration and deceleration times reading
6 %MW119.5 %MW130 0X40006 2 Acceleration and deceleration times setting
7 %MW119.6 %MW190 0X41F04 3 St1,St2, and St3 setting
8 %MW119.7 %MW195 0X41108 1 Control mode
9 %MW119.8 %MW196 0X41109 1 Torque control enable
10 %MW119.9 %MW197 0X41107 1 Torque reference setting
11 %MW119.10 %MW198 0X41206 1 V/F pattern
12 %MW118.0 %MW199 0X41813 1 PID reference source
13 %MW118.1 %MW200 0X41814 1 PID Feedback source
14 %MW118.2 %MW201 0X41800 1 Application function selection
15 %MW118.3 %MW202 0X41815 6 PID’s parameters setting
16 %MW118.4 %MW210 0X41812 1 PID reference setting
17 %MW118.5 %MW211 0X4181B 1 PID mode
18 %MW118.6 %MW212 0X4181E 1 PID output inverse
19 %MW118.7 %MW213 0X41600 1 Analogue output mode
Figure 4. Master-slave and query-response between the laptop, PLC and VFD
3. PERFORMANCE TEST’S EXAMPLES
The proposed platform has been tested for linear V/F pattern operation as shown in Figures 5, 6, 7,
square2 reduction V/F pattern operation as shown in Figure 8, open loop operation as shown in Figure 9, and
closed loop or PID loop operation as shown in Figure 10. Figure 5 displays the performance under linear V/F
ratio with 10 sec acceleration time (ACC) and 1 sec deceleration time (DEC). The figure shows the linear
relation between the VFD output frequency and output voltage and also shows how the ACC and DEC
parameter settings affect the speed of reaching the rated speed and the zero speed. Large acceleration ensures
soft increase in the shaft speed and the VFD output voltage r.m.s value and frequency, and an absence of the
current overshoot. Sharp (small time) deceleration causes sharp decrease in the shaft speed and VFD output
voltage r.m.s value and frequency but appearance of current overshoot due to the electrical breaking required
to narrow the deceleration period. Figure 6 displays the performance under linear V/F ratio with 1 sec
acceleration time and 10 sec deceleration time. These settings cause sharp transition from the standstill to the
steady state for shaft speed, the voltage r.m.s value and frequency and appearance of some current overshoot
in the motor starting current. However, ensures soft deceleration in the shaft speed, voltage r.m.s value and
frequency. Figure 7 displays the performance under linear V/F ratio with 10 sec acceleration time and 10 sec
deceleration time. For these settings both the acceleration and deceleration process are soft. Figure 8 displays
the performance under square2 reduction V/F ratio with 10 sec acceleration time and 10 sec deceleration
time. This figure shows nonlinear acceleration deceleration patterns to sustain torque throughout the whole
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 
Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood)
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frequency range. Figure 9 shows the VFD’s performance under open loop control mode of operation. In this
test, the VFD drives three-phase induction motor, which drives an induction generator (induction motor with
excitation capacitor bank). Under this mode of operation, the generation continued for 400 W resistive load
and failed to continue for 500 W unit step loading because of the uncorrected drop in the shaft speed.
Figure 10 shows the VFD’s performance under PID mode of operation. In this case, the generation continued
for 500 W unit step loading because the speed drop is quickly corrected by the PID loop.
Figure 5. Linear V/F with ramp ACC and sharp DEC Figure 6. Linear V/F with sharp ACC and ramp DEC
Figure 7. Linear V/F with ramp ACC and ramp DEC Figure 8. Square2 V/F with ramp ACC and ramp
DEC
 ISSN: 2088-8708
Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022: 3564-3571
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Figure 9. Open loop with 400 W resistive load Figure 10. PID loop with 500 W resistive load
4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, PC/PLC based VFD training platform using WxPython and PyModbus has been
introduced. The platform design depended: i) the timer class to coordinates the cyclic handshaking between
the PC and the PLC; ii) the graphical features of WxPython to develop the required interfacing between the
user and the VFD using menu devices (radio and check items), button devices (button and toggle buttons),
text devices (static and Ctrl texts items), panel devices to work as containers, combo box items, and plot
panel items to display the recorded data as trend graph; iii) Modbus/TCP Client of PyModbus to enable the
communication between the PC and the PLC; iv) Modbus RTU communication to establish the
communication between the PLC and the VFD; v) the PLC high-speed counter to measure the motor shaft
speed using incremental type shaft encoder; vi) the PLC digital to analog modules to control the VFD output
frequency via its analog input terminals; and vii) the PLC analog to digital modules to read the VFD analog
output. Through the adoption of the graphical features of WxPython, this work introduces a user-friendly and
cost effective educational platform through which the users can understand and practice the configuration of
the various parameters of the VFD unit. The real time monitoring and history recording facility of this work
strengthen the user understanding. The experiments conducted ensure that the user can use this platform to
practically understand the effect of the various parameters of LS S100 variable frequency drive unit. In
addition, this platform is used to control the speed of induction motor whether in open or closed loop (normal
or process PID) mode of operations and see the difference between the two modes.
REFERENCES
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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Jawad Radhi Mahmood received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical
Engineering and power electronics Engineering from University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq, in
1982 and 1986. Also, he received the Ph.D. degree in power electronics from the University of
Basrah in 2006. He is currently a professor in the Electrical Engineering department,
University of Basrah. His research interests include renewable electrical energy systems and
PLC applications in industrial and engineering education, fuzzy logic based control of DC/DC
and AC/DC power converters, and developments of many PLC/HMI based educational
platforms. He can be contacted at email: jawad.mahmood@uobasrah.edu.iq.
Ramzy Salim Ali received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering
and Control and System Engineering from University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq, in 1985 and
1989, respectively. He also received the Ph.D. degree in Control and Systems engineering
from Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Russia in 2003. Currently, he is a
professor in Electrical Engineering Department, University of Basrah. His research interests
include intelligent control, robust control, industrial automation, robotics, chaos and nonlinear
control, soft computing, pattern and image processing, renewable energy and energy
harvesting. Dr. Ramzy is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He can be contacted at email:
ramzy.ali@uobasrah.edu.iq.

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Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency drive training platform using WxPython and PyModbus

  • 1. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022, pp. 3564~3571 ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v12i4.pp3564-3571  3564 Journal homepage: http://ijece.iaescore.com Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency drive training platform using WxPython and PyModbus Jawad Radhi Mahmood, Ramzy Salim Ali Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Aug 27, 2021 Revised Mar 16, 2022 Accepted Mar 30, 2022 Variable frequency drive (VFD) is one of the key elements in industrial field. It is used to match the three-phase induction motor’s speed and torque to the industrial field process requirements in addition to energy saving and efficiency improvement. This important role of the VFD asks for the development of an efficient training and cost effective platform for the electrical engineering students, technicians, and maintenance personals. This paper introduces a user-friendly platform through which the users can understand and practice the configuration of the various parameters of the VFD unit. This platform uses two computing devices to deal with the VFD; these are the personal computer (PC) and the programmable logic controller (PLC) which is also a computer but designed to operate in wide range of temperature and humidity and can accept digital and analog signals. The PC uses WxPython (cross-platform graphical user interfaces (GUI) toolkit of Python programming language) and PyModbus communication utility to play the role of the human machine interfacing (which allows the user to execute the communication requirements and at the same time provide an oscilloscope like facility to display the platform response in real time mode or history recorded mode). With this platform, the VFD’s parameters configuration is done via the RS-485 communication port using Modbus recommandation temporaire d'utilisation (RTU) communication protocol. Keywords: Programmable logic controller PyModbus Training platform Variable frequency drive WxPython This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Ramzy Salim Ali Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Basrah Basrah, 610001, Iraq Email: [email protected] 1. INTRODUCTION Variable frequency drives (VFDs) are microprocessor controlled inverters used for controlling the rotational speed of alternating current (AC) induction motors by controlling the frequency of the electric power supplied to the induction motors which take about two third of the electrical energy in the word [1]–[4]. Industrially, these may be called adjustable frequency drives, variable speed drives, AC drive, micro drive, or inverter drive [5], [6]. From the point of view of supported functions, to some extent, one can say they have a lot to share. The parameters codes and method of modification are brand dependent. So too well understand these key products and be ready to deal with any one of them, one must focus on understanding the physical meaning of the control terminals supported functions, the linear and nonlinear relationships between the VFD’s output voltage and frequency, the protection functions, the speed control functions, the torque control functions, and the communication functions.
  • 2. Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708  Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood) 3565 From the point of view of hardware, the VFD is microprocessor controlled three-phase inverter for which the direct current (DC) link voltage is supplied either using single or three-phase rectifiers followed by filter stage consisting of dc link choke or reactor and capacitor filter. This means it is a combination of passive power circuit components and active power electronic switching devices that are driven or controlled by microprocessor based control system. From the point of view of functions, they are used to control the speed and torque of drive machinery and to meet particular starting and stopping requirements [7]. The programmable logic controller (PLC) always shares the VFD the industrial activities control [8]–[10]. It is a microprocessor-based, solid-state, single processor device [11]. It has the ability to accept digital input signals coming from the industrial field input devices like proximity switches and shaft encoders [12]–[14]. It also can accept analog signal like that coming from the analog output of the VFD. It also has the ability to generate and send digital and analog driving signals for the industrial field output devices like the VFDs. PLC comes with built-in communication ports usually 9-pin RS232, RS-422, RS-485, and Ethernet [15]. From the point of view of operation modes, the PLC widely used modes of operation are the repetitive operation mode and the interrupt mode. The repetitive or scan mode of operation is the main operation mode that each PLC should have at least one of it. In this mode, the user application program is repetitively executed from its start statement to its end statement as long as the PLC is in the run mode. Here the program execution does not depend upon any condition. The interrupt operation mode is event driven one. In this mode of operation, the user application program includes more than one program. Mainly, it consists of a main scan program and one or more interrupt service or event driven programs. The interrupt service program execution does not occur automatically. Its execution is always stipulated to the occurrence of a certain interrupt signal. When an interrupt signal takes place, the currently executed program is suspended and the interrupt program is executed. From the point of view of programming languages, all the PLCs support ladder language and some of them in addition to the ladder language support function block and/or structured text-programming languages. In this work, the structured text programming language has been used. This language is very close to the well-known Pascal language. WxPython is a cross platform for Python programming language. Its library allows programmers to develop highly graphical user interfaces (GUI) for their programs using menu bars, menus, panels, static text, text ctrl, radio item, check item, button, toggle button, and combo box. In WxPython all the elements of a GUI are contained within top level windows such as wx.Frame or wx.Dialog [16]. Modbus protocol is widely used in industrial field. It supports client/server communication between field devices such as PLCs, VFDs, and smart input/output units. Modbus devices are provided with well- defined Modbus memory map. PyModbus is a full Modbus protocol implementation. It uses asynchronous communication over TCP/IP connection [17]. It allows reading of data from PLCs and writing data to PLCs over Ethernet connection [18]. The PLCs data can be accessed as bit(s) and word(s). Because of its key role in industry, the VFD gained the interest of researchers; Liang et al. [19] investigated the operation and starting of three phase induction motors driven by variable frequency drives. They stated, operation of induction motors with VFDs provides flexible speed control and to produce the same starting voltage as the cross-line starting for high inertia loads, the required starting voltage at the motor terminal shows large variation at the starting frequency of VFDs between 2-10 Hz and this explain why VFDs are provided with voltage boost function. Jiang and Zhang [20], used VFD and PLC to build speed regulation system for elevator. With this combination they found, the elevator reliability and passenger comfort had been improved in addition to reduced maintenance and power consumption. Mahmood et al. [21] developed a PLC-HMI driven platform to control the speed of VFD fed three-phase induction motor using a fuzzy logic controller and the traditional proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. Jasim et al. [22] introduced an Arduino based speed controller for three-phase induction motor through the adoption of the constant voltage to frequency ratio (V/f) operation mode of the AC drive. Ramesh et al. [23] show that conservation of energy for hydraulic clamping system in CNC machine can be achieved when using a VFD driven pump. Puja and Syed [24] stated that VFD allows to control the induction motor with the reduction in power consumption. Gómez et al. [25] studied the feasibility of energy saving by implementing flow regulation at constant load in feed water pumps in a sugar industry. Jasim et al. [26] used four VFD units to control the speed of four submersible water pump and the light intensity of four lamps (each VFD controls one pump and one lamp) according to the voltage control signals derived from the IIR filter. The VFD is provided with simple keypad to configure its parameters. This keypad is not robust, but it is suitable and efficient for industrial applications in which the VFD is configured during the design phase and may be modified in the commissioning and running phase. It cannot be used for training applications which exposes the keypad’s keys for large number of finger pressing in addition to the time period required for each parameter modification or setting. To overcome this situation and create a practical VFD training platform, the proposed platform should have the following features: i) having a user-friendly educational software utility to practice the VFD’s parameter configuration, ii) provide real time monitoring for the behavior of the VFD under parameters changes, iii) provide history recording utility for the VFD’s voltages
  • 3.  ISSN: 2088-8708 Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022: 3564-3571 3566 (DC link voltage and output voltage), output frequency, Output current, and torque in addition to the shaft speed, and iv) allow the experimental understanding of the VFD built-in PID utility. 2. THE PROPOSED PLATFORM HARDWARE AND THE WXPYTHON BASED GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE To fulfill the requirements of the work’s aim, the platform’s overall construction has been divided into two parts. These are the hardware part and the software one. The details of the platform hardware setup and the graphical user interface based WxPython are will explain in the next subsections. 2.1. The platform’s hardware setup The hardware part consists of a personal computer, PLC panel, VFD unit, two induction motor, shaft encoder, and capacitor bank as shown in Figure 1. The specification of the various components is listed in Table 1. The hardware wiring is illustrated in Figure 2. Figure 1. Hardware setup Table 1. Hardware components Component Description PC HP, Processor: Intel® Core ™ i5 PLC XEC-DR28UA/DC VFD: LSLV00-155100-4EONNS Input: 380-480 V, 3 phases, 50/60 Hz, HD=4.2A, ND=5.5 A. Output: 0-Input voltage, 3 phases, 0.1-400HzHz, HD=4 A, ND=5.1 A. 3-Phase Induction Motor (M1) 220/380 V, Delta/Star, 0.75 KW, 3.2/1.6 A, 2845 r.p.m 3-Phase Induction Motor (M2) 220/380 V, Delta/Star, 0.75 KW, 3.55/2.05 A, 1390 r.p.m Capacitor Bank 3×20 µF ;star connected ABL8RDS24030 A 24 VDC, 3 A, power supply Resistive Load 6×100 W lamps Magnetic Contactors: LC1D09 Two magnetic contactors. 2.2. The WxPython based graphical user interface The operation screen of the proposed training platform is shown Figure 3. From the figure, it can be noticed how user configures the LSLV-S100 VFD’s parameters, run the VFD for driving the three-phase induction motors, and monitor or record the current, voltage, and frequency supplied to the motor. In addition to that, also the shaft speed, torque, and DC link voltage may be configured. 2.3. Method The proposed work anchored on two internal PLC’s communication networks. These are the computer network (Cnet) and the fast Ethernet network (FEnet). The former, the Cnet, has been used to communicate the PLC with the VFD (LSLV-S100). For this network, the peer-to-peer (P2P) has been selected as operation mode whereas the Modbus RTU Client has been selected as P2P driver. The read and write areas for this network are listed in Table 2. The later, the FEnet has been used to establish the
  • 4. Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708  Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood) 3567 communication between the PLC and the PC. For this one, the Modbus server has been adopted as server mode with %IX0.0.0 as bit read area start address, %QX0.0.0 as bit write area start address, %MW0 as word read area start address, and %MW100 as word write area start address for the Modbus settings. Figure 2. Hardware wiring Figure 3. Operation screen
  • 5.  ISSN: 2088-8708 Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022: 3564-3571 3568 The VFD’s parameters reading and setting is executed by the WxPython user program through the event driven concept. The WxPython user programed controls the conditional flags and the PLC memory areas listed in Table 2 to set or read the VFD’s parameters via the PLC as shown in Figure 4. The PLC uses its high-speed counter instruction to calculate the motor running speed and feed this speed to WxPython user program. It also uses it digital to analog and analog to digital facilities to control the VFD (via its V1 terminal) and read its analog output (AO). The real time mentoring and recording of the VFD’s output variables (voltage, frequency, current, DC link voltage, and torque) and the motor shaft speed are executed making use of the WxpPython timer event. Table 2. The PLC and the VFD Modbus memory address Index Conditional Flag PLC Memory Start address S100 Start address -1 Data Size Parameters 0 %MW118.8 %MW12 0X3030F 8 Current, Frequency, r.p.m, feedbackspeed, Vout, DC link voltage, power, and torque 1 %MW119.9 %MW120 0X41105 2 Command and frequency reference sources 2 %MW119.1 %MW126 0X0004 1 Command frequency 3 %MW119.2 %MW140 0X41540 5 P1 to P5 terminals function settings 4 %MW119.3 %MW40 0X31540 5 P1 to P5 terminals function reading 5 %MW119.4 %MW30 0X30006 2 Acceleration and deceleration times reading 6 %MW119.5 %MW130 0X40006 2 Acceleration and deceleration times setting 7 %MW119.6 %MW190 0X41F04 3 St1,St2, and St3 setting 8 %MW119.7 %MW195 0X41108 1 Control mode 9 %MW119.8 %MW196 0X41109 1 Torque control enable 10 %MW119.9 %MW197 0X41107 1 Torque reference setting 11 %MW119.10 %MW198 0X41206 1 V/F pattern 12 %MW118.0 %MW199 0X41813 1 PID reference source 13 %MW118.1 %MW200 0X41814 1 PID Feedback source 14 %MW118.2 %MW201 0X41800 1 Application function selection 15 %MW118.3 %MW202 0X41815 6 PID’s parameters setting 16 %MW118.4 %MW210 0X41812 1 PID reference setting 17 %MW118.5 %MW211 0X4181B 1 PID mode 18 %MW118.6 %MW212 0X4181E 1 PID output inverse 19 %MW118.7 %MW213 0X41600 1 Analogue output mode Figure 4. Master-slave and query-response between the laptop, PLC and VFD 3. PERFORMANCE TEST’S EXAMPLES The proposed platform has been tested for linear V/F pattern operation as shown in Figures 5, 6, 7, square2 reduction V/F pattern operation as shown in Figure 8, open loop operation as shown in Figure 9, and closed loop or PID loop operation as shown in Figure 10. Figure 5 displays the performance under linear V/F ratio with 10 sec acceleration time (ACC) and 1 sec deceleration time (DEC). The figure shows the linear relation between the VFD output frequency and output voltage and also shows how the ACC and DEC parameter settings affect the speed of reaching the rated speed and the zero speed. Large acceleration ensures soft increase in the shaft speed and the VFD output voltage r.m.s value and frequency, and an absence of the current overshoot. Sharp (small time) deceleration causes sharp decrease in the shaft speed and VFD output voltage r.m.s value and frequency but appearance of current overshoot due to the electrical breaking required to narrow the deceleration period. Figure 6 displays the performance under linear V/F ratio with 1 sec acceleration time and 10 sec deceleration time. These settings cause sharp transition from the standstill to the steady state for shaft speed, the voltage r.m.s value and frequency and appearance of some current overshoot in the motor starting current. However, ensures soft deceleration in the shaft speed, voltage r.m.s value and frequency. Figure 7 displays the performance under linear V/F ratio with 10 sec acceleration time and 10 sec deceleration time. For these settings both the acceleration and deceleration process are soft. Figure 8 displays the performance under square2 reduction V/F ratio with 10 sec acceleration time and 10 sec deceleration time. This figure shows nonlinear acceleration deceleration patterns to sustain torque throughout the whole
  • 6. Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708  Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood) 3569 frequency range. Figure 9 shows the VFD’s performance under open loop control mode of operation. In this test, the VFD drives three-phase induction motor, which drives an induction generator (induction motor with excitation capacitor bank). Under this mode of operation, the generation continued for 400 W resistive load and failed to continue for 500 W unit step loading because of the uncorrected drop in the shaft speed. Figure 10 shows the VFD’s performance under PID mode of operation. In this case, the generation continued for 500 W unit step loading because the speed drop is quickly corrected by the PID loop. Figure 5. Linear V/F with ramp ACC and sharp DEC Figure 6. Linear V/F with sharp ACC and ramp DEC Figure 7. Linear V/F with ramp ACC and ramp DEC Figure 8. Square2 V/F with ramp ACC and ramp DEC
  • 7.  ISSN: 2088-8708 Int J Elec & Comp Eng, Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2022: 3564-3571 3570 Figure 9. Open loop with 400 W resistive load Figure 10. PID loop with 500 W resistive load 4. CONCLUSION In this paper, PC/PLC based VFD training platform using WxPython and PyModbus has been introduced. The platform design depended: i) the timer class to coordinates the cyclic handshaking between the PC and the PLC; ii) the graphical features of WxPython to develop the required interfacing between the user and the VFD using menu devices (radio and check items), button devices (button and toggle buttons), text devices (static and Ctrl texts items), panel devices to work as containers, combo box items, and plot panel items to display the recorded data as trend graph; iii) Modbus/TCP Client of PyModbus to enable the communication between the PC and the PLC; iv) Modbus RTU communication to establish the communication between the PLC and the VFD; v) the PLC high-speed counter to measure the motor shaft speed using incremental type shaft encoder; vi) the PLC digital to analog modules to control the VFD output frequency via its analog input terminals; and vii) the PLC analog to digital modules to read the VFD analog output. Through the adoption of the graphical features of WxPython, this work introduces a user-friendly and cost effective educational platform through which the users can understand and practice the configuration of the various parameters of the VFD unit. The real time monitoring and history recording facility of this work strengthen the user understanding. The experiments conducted ensure that the user can use this platform to practically understand the effect of the various parameters of LS S100 variable frequency drive unit. In addition, this platform is used to control the speed of induction motor whether in open or closed loop (normal or process PID) mode of operations and see the difference between the two modes. REFERENCES [1] P. Bhase and M. Lathkar, “Energy conservation using VFD,” in 2015 International Conference on Energy Systems and Applications, Oct. 2015, pp. 531–536, doi: 10.1109/ICESA.2015.7503406. [2] P. P. Bachchhav, T. M. Kasar, and R. S. Zete, “Energy conservation by energy efficient drive,” in 2017 International Conference on Innovations in Information, Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS), Mar. 2017, pp. 1–6, doi: 10.1109/ICIIECS.2017.8276053. [3] E. C. Quispe, I. D. López, F. J. T. E. Ferreira, and V. Sousa, “Unbalanced voltages impacts on the energy performance of induction motors,” International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE), vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1412–1422, Jun. 2018, doi: 10.11591/ijece.v8i3.pp1412-1422. [4] M. S. H. Lipu and T. F. Karim, “Energy efficiency opportunities and savings potential for electric motor and its impact on GHG emissions reduction,” International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE), vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 533–542, 2013. [5] M. Barnes, Practical variable speed drives and power electronics. Elsevier, 2003. [6] N. Khalid, “Efficient energy management: is variable frequency drives the solution,” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 145, pp. 371–376, Aug. 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.06.046. [7] M. G. Ioannides, “Design and implementation of PLC-based monitoring control system for induction motor,” IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 469–476, Sep. 2004, doi: 10.1109/TEC.2003.822303. [8] R. G. Dorjee, “Monitoring and control of a variable frequency drive using PLC and SCADA,” International Journal on Recent
  • 8. Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708  Personal computer/programmable logic controller based variable frequency … (Jawad Radhi Mahmood) 3571 and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 3092–3098, 2014. [9] P. Verma and R. M. Potdar, “A review on AC drive controller using PLC,” International Journal of Innovative Research in Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering, vol. 5, no. 9, 2017. [10] Mahesh Kumar K. M. and B. Ramachandra, “Speed control of three phase induction motor using PLC under open and closed loop condition,” International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, vol. 7, no. 01, pp. 34–39, Jan. 2017, doi: 10.9790/9622-0701043439. [11] E. R. Alphonsus and M. O. Abdullah, “A review on the applications of programmable logic controllers (PLCs),” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 60, pp. 1185–1205, Jul. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.025. [12] M. 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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS Jawad Radhi Mahmood received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and power electronics Engineering from University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq, in 1982 and 1986. Also, he received the Ph.D. degree in power electronics from the University of Basrah in 2006. He is currently a professor in the Electrical Engineering department, University of Basrah. His research interests include renewable electrical energy systems and PLC applications in industrial and engineering education, fuzzy logic based control of DC/DC and AC/DC power converters, and developments of many PLC/HMI based educational platforms. He can be contacted at email: [email protected]. Ramzy Salim Ali received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Control and System Engineering from University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq, in 1985 and 1989, respectively. He also received the Ph.D. degree in Control and Systems engineering from Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Russia in 2003. Currently, he is a professor in Electrical Engineering Department, University of Basrah. His research interests include intelligent control, robust control, industrial automation, robotics, chaos and nonlinear control, soft computing, pattern and image processing, renewable energy and energy harvesting. Dr. Ramzy is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He can be contacted at email: [email protected].