MagForce motor system installation

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Chime Master MagForce™ swinging bell systems feature a unique touch-less, friction-less and nearly silent motor technology. A stationary drive module induces electro-motive eddy-current forces into a reactor plate mounted to the free swinging bell assembly. A wall mounted motion control panel intelligently experiments and quickly learns the unique physical properties of your bell then carefully manages the energy required for accurate ringing. This page outlines and details how to install this sophisticated system.

Mechanical considerations

All MagForce motors should be installed with modern ball bearing pillow block bearings on the A-stand pivots. Older sleeve bearings exceed the frictional allowances needed for automation.

Cranked head stocks

A cranked head stock, sometimes called a yoke, suspends the bell slightly below the center of gravity (CG). This configuration is often used to reduce the side loads to the tower when the bell is swinging. Because the CG of the bell is near the center of bearing rotation, the bell is also easy to swing. We want to size the motor for both the bell's weight and the CG effect, but you may have to reduce the motor power during programming to prevent the bell from going over the programmed swinging angle.

Straight head stocks

A straight head stock, especially when not incorporated with counterweight above the bell (with either a wooden head stock or additional iron weights), will require a powerful motor to swing the bell.

Radius from head stock pivot to motor

The center of the motor should be mounted at a minimum 80% of the bell diameter down from the top of the bell. For straight yokes (and flying clappers), this will be the length of the reactor plate mounting arms. Motors can be mounted above the bell (at the same radius from the pivot point) if the weight of the reaction plate is taken into consideration when setting the headstock crank depth. This will also slow the ringing tempo.

The motor induction housing should be painted with a polyurethane coating for UV resistance when used outside, and can be painted with the tower to match.

intelliSwing control feedback

The motor control circuit needs some motion feedback from the bell to determine that it is swinging properly. We offer two types of feedback devices to accomplish this. The wiring requirements are the same for both, four conductors of a telco or CAT5 cable usually suffice.

Proximity sensor (standard)

A three wire (60 inch cable) proximity sensor provides output when a bolt head or metal flag is about 1/4 inch away. Typically, a bolt is mounted to protrude from the bell wheel or head stock assembly. A stainless steel sheet metal flag is also supplied that can be mounted with dual adhesive foam tape or epoxy to the wheel or head stock.

The proximity sensor must be located at least 8 inches from the induction motor brick to prevent electromagnetic interference. It should also be far enough from the head stock pivot to sense small movements of the bell (5 degrees minimum). When the bell is at rest, the bolt or flag should be centered on the sensor.

For proximity sensor use, verify that the motor control computer chip is labeled "PERIOD."

Precision rotary movement sensor (option)

The rotary encoder is mounted to a non-moving part (A-stand) with pulleys and belt to sense the angular movement of the swinging bell axle.

For rotary encoder systems, verify that the label on the CPU chip of the motor control system says "SENSOR."

System Electrical Diagrams

Single or Three Phase Power

Chime Master must know definitively the available power for the bell system prior to quotation. You should have an electrician survey the power situation. We have had instances where three phase power entry boxes were used in buildings with only a single phase service.

Note that these diagrams are shown with 3 phase 208VAC power. This is the optimal situation for MagForce motors. When only single phase 230VAC power is available, motor capacitors are added to the motor control panel, and the overloads are rewired for single phase supply. In both cases, three phases are always wired from the control panel to the motor.

Riser Diagrams

These PDF documents print best on at least 11x17 inch pages. Click to open in your browser or right click to download and save:

T1M3 (pdf) - Three Bells, all swing, with one tolling hammer on large bell

Programming Procedure

The intelliSwing motor control system must be programmed with the bell at the time of installation. A special hand-held terminal is required for this setup and is available on loan from Chime Master with a deposit.

Motion Sensing

Generally a proximity home switch is used with MagForce motors. If precise angle control is needed to avoid swinging into obstacles, an optional rotary encoder can be provided. It is important that the appropriate firmware has been loaded into the intelliSwing Precision motion controller. For proximity switch sensing, the label on the CPU must read 'PERIOD' and for the rotary encoder it must read 'SENSOR'. If you have a rotary code wheel and 'SENSOR' firmware, use the rotary motor programing procedure.

Using the Terminal

Connect the programming terminal and turn on panel power. The right cursor button will take you through the settings for each bell in the system. From the status window, shown below, you can cursor left to select another bell. To change settings you can increment/decrement using the up and down arrow buttons, or input the value with the numeric buttons and save it with the EXE button.

The two line programming status screen should look like this (first and fourth lines are our labels):

    Swing Angle      Motor Pulse Time      Tempo
         20.0               24           #101.
         84                *14           Start
     Motor RPM    (*Sensor) Ideal Pulse    Status

When the bell is swinging, the display will indicate the current Swing Angle to the nearest tenth of a degree, the Motor Pulse time in milliseconds, the Tempo in beats per minute, the motor RPM (for rotary) and "*" will blink when feedback from the sensor occurs. The Ideal Pulse is the time in milliseconds that will maintain the desired swinging angle. Status will be Start, Stop, Restart, StartP, Calc-P or Calc-Imp, indicating the swinging/calculation mode.

Initialize

To reset all settings to default, go left to the Language selection screen and press the DEL button.

For proximity (period) sensor systems, set the transmission value to 5.0. In order to calibrate the angle of the bell to the swinging period, set the Oscillation value as follows:

• Go to the 1Oscillation screen and press the ON button - the display will say "Measure"
• Swing the bell by hand or by using the EXE key to pulse (single direction) to a little more than 20 degrees. Make sure that the M light is blinking on the control board. If not, check the light on the rear of the proximity sensor. Check the sensor connections. The period at the top of the screen should change from the default value of 900 to the actual swinging period of the bell.
• when bell has coasted to about 20 degrees, watch for the period to update then press the ON key to save it current period
• this measurement is not critical except if it is off then

1. The angle that you select below will not be the true angle, but if you can get the bell to ring properly, don't be overly concerned with the number
2. If you set the Oscillation angle too high, the start period will be too long and the bell may fight against the period at start up. It is better to set the oscillation period to an angle that the motor can reasonably reach with the start pulses than an accurate 20 degrees.

Select Swing Angle and other parameters

Set the Swing Angle to 25 to 30 degrees - a starting point for experimentation. If you know the 1Oscillation to be set to less than 20 degrees then start testing with an Angle of 40 to 50.

Set %Start to 50. The default is 95. Too long of a pulse will end up fighting the starting of the bell. For proximity sensor systems, this value determines the percentage of the startup period (set in 1Oscillation) the motor will be energized until the sensor provides a period signal. Longer pulses may cause the motor to brake the bell as it back swings. If the bell has a hard time starting, experiment with different values here, and also the number of starting pulses (see below). Errors will result if the sensor doesn’t see a change before the number of start pulses has counted out.

Set %Brake to zero while in the setup mode to prevent overheating while testing.

Set StaImp to 8 or 10. During testing below, count how many pulses it takes for the proximity sensor to see the flag go away, then you can set this to about 2 over that count. The maximum value is 20. If you are using more than ten, experiment with other values of %Start to get the bell moving with fewer pulses.

Set MaxAmpli to a large value like 90 to 120 (unless there are obstacles the bell might collide with) it will default to ten degrees higher than Angle before auto calculations then 5 degrees higher when testing is complete. A higher value will prevent shutdowns for exceeding the maximum angle during experimentation (error status = MaxAmpli).

P-regulator and I-regulator both default to 50 for fully automatic calculations. Semi automatic calculations are made when they are set to equal values other than 50; in that case only the ideal I will be calculated and saved (no restart needed, P will be stored with the value you set). If the bell is easy to swing a quicker semi-automatic calculation will result with both P-regulator and I-regulator both set to 25. Try the default of 50 first, then change to 25 (with a strong motor) if the CalcImp mode seems to ‘hunt' for a long time. If the motor is suspected to be weak for the bell, set both regulators to a higher value such as 75.

The automatic calculations should be finished within ten minutes. If it is taking longer and you are happy with the way the bell is ringing, you can terminate the calculations using the current settings. To do this, keep the bell swinging and set I-regulator to zero. The display will change to 'Swing' and you can stop the bell. Make sure it starts correctly with the saved values after coming to a complete stop.

Automatic calculation

The bell needs to swing two times (full automatic setting) so the controller can experiment with the required pulses. These parameters will only be saved after the bell has been rung twice.

The first time it will say ‘Start’ then ‘Calc-Imp’ then ‘Start.' After you stop the motor the status display will read 'Restart.'

The second time will say ‘Start’ then ‘Calc-P’ then 'Swing.' The calculated parameters are not saved until the status display reads 'Swing.' After you stop the motor the status display will read 'Stop.' The calculated parameters are saved in non-volatile memory, so power can be safely turned off at this point.

First Swing Test

Calculating the ideal impulse

Press ON to start the first automated experiment. Status on the lower right of the display will read “StartP" until the system has fired the number of impulses you specified in StaImp. Next it will read “Start” as it approaches the desired angle. When it begins to search for the ideal pulse, it will read “CalcImp."

• If the bell isn't swinging high enough to ring, but the controller stops sending impulses to the motor during CalcImp, then increase Angle.
• If the bell kicks too high on the first pulse, reduce power in the %Start and PowerStaSwi parameters.
• If the bell seems to be fighting itself to get started, experiment with %Start.
• If you get ‘ErrBlo’ (blocked bell), maybe it needs more pulses to start, try increasing StaImp
• When ’Swing’ appears on the display, the system has calculated the ideal impulse (middle value on the lower line on the status screen) to swing the bell. If you would like the bell to swing higheror lower, try other values for Angle and MaxAmpli. It will recalculate the ideal impulse based on changes you make at this time.
• When you like the angle and the display again says ‘Swing’ you can press ON to stop the bell swinging. Wait for the bell to come to a full stop.
• The terminal display will indicate ‘Restart’ to indicate that the experiment is not yet complete.

Second Swing Test

Calculate the over/under Proportional correction factor

The system will not require a second swing if you set P-regulator to values other than 50. It will use your parameter and expect you to experiment to make sure it will work properly.

Press ON to start the second experiment. The terminal display will say ‘CalculP’ while it is determining the setting for the P-regulator. This is the amount that will be subtracted from the ideal motor pulse when the bell swings too high. It is also added to the ideal motor pulse if the motor swings too low.

When ‘Swing’ appears on the display, the calculation is complete and you may press ON to stop the bell. Wait for the bell to come to a full stop.

In some cases, the display may say ‘Restart’ instead of ‘Stop’ because the motor may not be ideally sized for the bell and values for P and I could not be found in the normal range. If this occurs, tweak the PowerStaSwi (and maybe P/I-regulator if that doesn't help, see above) parameter and press ON again until you see ‘Swing’. You have not successfully finished the setup and the parameters are not permanently saved until you reach status=Swing.

Additional Tests

Testing performance and re-calucuating after making adjustments

Further experiments (first and second swing) must be re-run if you adjust Angle, PowerStaSwi, Pos-Impuls or Transmiss after calculations are complete.

The ideal impulse is not written to memory unless I-regulator is zero. It will automatically go to zero if the system calculated the value. If you entered your own value for I then you will also have to set I- regulator to zero yourself to save it in memory (manual setup mode), then swing the bell again to make sure it works. Adjustments to %Start, %Brake, PowerBrake1 and PowerBrake2 can be made at this time without having to recalculate Ideal pulses. You can test them to be sure the motor overloads don’t pop when this happens.

Do not use braking with retrograde (counterbalanced) clappers. Bell damage from a severe impact may occur if the clapper gets out of phase with the bell and they collide from opposite directions.

Adjust Assym as needed so that the clapper rings evenly on both sides of the bell.

Stationary Overload Test

After everything else is completed, you can adjust the motor overload (if installed on 1HP and larger motors) current setting to trip within 40 seconds of a locked rotor condition. Click the left arrow (5 clicks) from the Status screen until you get to the Test-PKZ page. Press the ON button to turn on all phases in such a fashion that the motor does not run (simulation of a locked rotor). Then adjust the overload so that it trips before the on-screen timer reaches 40 seconds.

Note that on single phase systems, the load must be routed through all three circuits of the overload. One leg can go straight through, the other leg must be wrapped around and run through a second overload circuit in series with the first so all three internal overload heaters have the same temperature. Overloads are designed to detect missing phases this way and will trip quickly if one is detected to be missing.

Final Settings

Make a record of the following settings for future reference when setup is complete:

• Bell Number (1 is the largest bell)
• Swing Angle (intended angle)
• Transmission (rotary code wheel to angle ratio - always 5.0 for proximity sensors)
• %Start (portion of swing angle for starting pulses)
• %Brake (portion of swing angle of braking pulses)
• 1Oscillation (period for 20 degrees of swing for proximity sensor calibration)
• PowerStaSwi (power reduction using soft-start current limiting 1-8, 9=full current)
• Brake Angle (angle where brake switches from Power Brake 1 to 2)
• Power Brake 1 (first brake current limit)
• Power Brake 2 (second brake current limit)
• StartImp (maximum number of impulses allowed before sensor provides motion feedback)
• MaxAmpl (maximum angle before error and shutdown)
• P-Regulator (Proportional regulation factor)
• I-Regulator (Integration regulation factor)
• Pos-Impulse (Position of the motor impulse in the sweep of the bell; 0=home 100=turnaround)
• Assymmetric (Proportion of motor pulse for forward/backward balance; 50 = equal, 100 or 0 = unidirectional drive)