Skeletons in my Closet!

[supremewhirlpol]

I put the VFD in "local" mode. Lets proceed with testing.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

It looks happy! Link to the test video below.

 

[tolivac]

Watched the video-GREAT-looks like the Motor and drive work well.glad the experiment is progressing.If you absolutly had to use a 120V input VFD-if its output could be cleaned up somewhat by running it thru a 1to 1 3Ph transformer.As you would know AC motors HATE square waves!

 

[qualin]

Looks like you have the full range of motion and speeds set up. I'm guessing at 60 Hz output, that drum is spinning at 300 RPM?

Which leads into the question, how fast did these originally spin?

Looks to me like you have to do some programming now.

Did these originally just work in one direction only or did they reverse, stop, reverse, etc for the washing action?

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Rex:
That's true. That's why I chose a motor rated for inverter duty. Yeah, but still not very good for the motor. 3 phase Isolation transformer would probably work.

qualin:
For wash: 47-51 RPM For spin: 215 rpm With this VFD, I can push the motor to 300Hz, but it won't do the motor or the machine any good. At 60Hz the motor is 3425 RPM. I have made to computations of what frequency I need to set the VFD to in order to achieve the proper RPMs. At some point I may post the computations. During the test video, the motor and VFD worked OK, but not its best. Going through the manual, there are ~52 different parameters that I will need to program. I'll post that after I create the Idler pulley.

The GE combo tumbles in one direction for wash, and the other direction for spin, so I've been told.

 

[qualin]

Ok, so that makes me wonder now..

Are you going to "Preserve" the way it washed and dried, by having it tumble in one direction for each mode?

Or are you going to modernize it a bit and have it do the tumble clockwise/pause/tumble anti-clockwise sequence for washing and then perhaps just a straight normal unidirectional tumble for drying?

It seems to me that with that VFD and a small micro-controller board, the possibilities are endless...

... and that all the vintage timer would be good for would be for putting the machine into the right mode at the right time and the controller does the rest.

Something like an Arduino controller would do the trick quite nicely, but I'm not sure how far you want to modernize this machine..

 

[tolivac]

Melvin-"invertor" duty motors have heavier insulation than standard duty motors-so as to withstand the "grunge" that VFD's can generate.The transformers and reactors were especially intended for motors that weren't made to operate off a VFD.I remember a crude VFD I made---involved a VERY high power audio amp(surplus Altec Lansing A287 beleive it was --a 300W tubed amp from a drive movie theater)and an audio oscillator.The motor I used was an old syncronous teletype motor-I could run it from several Hertz on up to about 300 as you are doing.The torque of that motor changed greatly at the extreme ends-and the tubes in the amp were working much harder-the amp had a 120V output-guess just for that type use or for a lab shaker table motor.It also had 70.7V(like stand PA system)and 4,8,16 ohms.When you used that amp with a speaker-sounded very good.Used two 845 tubes in the output-and 866 mercury vapor rectifiers You drove it with a separate amp-used a 50W mono amp to drive the Altec.Altec made an amp especially for the purpose of driving that amp but didn't have it.A later Altec amp used 6BA6 tubes and 813's so it had higher gain.wished I had one of those.But it was still fun to use that Atec amp I had as a "VFD"Ended up selling it to an Altec collector.Since my Altec "VFD" would generate a sine wave-no filtering required-but--the amp could not start larger motors-like a 1/2Hp one from a washer-or a disposer.And of course those motors would be limited in the frequency range.the teletype motor ran from 120V.Oh how I remember those teletype machines well-common staple in radio,TV stations and newspapers.UPI provided the machines for the stations or newspapers teletype rooms-got the motor from a hamfest.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Time to do some wire tracing! Wires are VERY filthy. Very important to see the color of the wires. Cleaning the inside of the console.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Timer is missing a bolt.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Everything else in the console looks good.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Something is missing!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Black wire from the terminal block is disconnected. This machine is nice and filthy!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

More dirty wires!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

hot/cold water valve, and condensing valve are missing. Judging by the mark on the cabinet, something very bad happened in this area.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

From a repair guide that I found on another section of this site, there is a C/H water valves and a condensing valve. Being that GE combos are dead walking dinosaurs, due to no spare parts availability, here is my solution:

 

[supremewhirlpol]

I use C/H valves from Kenmore/Whirlpool DD machine and a water valve from either a refrigerator or dishwasher. They are spare parts that I took from machines.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

I use some adapters to convert the fittings and hose sizes. The black hoses and y-connector come from a young FL machine that got crushed, due to different parts of it not being engineered properly. Still need to pressure test and check for leaks with this solution. Now...back to tracing wires, and relay logic.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Tracing wires to figure out which ones go to each of the valves, I find the following.

 

[supremewhirlpol]

Purple + orange is for the condensing valve, but taping them together? Really? Good thing I decide to trace the wires before putting power to the while machine! Untaping one wire, not too happy about this!

 

[supremewhirlpol]

After tracing the wires for the valves, I ended up switching the BL and BL/WH wires so that the HOT valve is on the bottom.