The [Precision] bell ringing system consists of a rotary motor with optical rotation encoder and a wall-mounted motor power control unit. This mathematically brilliant motor controller experiments and quickly learns the unique physical properties of your bell then carefully manages the energy required for perfect ringing and never overshoots the desired swinging angle.
Three phase and single phase bi-directional motors are available with this system. Very large bells are supported with the use of dual motors.
Wiring diagrams
Mounting the motor
Programming the controller
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.
Precision angle sensing
Either a slotted code wheel with sensors are mounted to the motor or a separate code wheel is coupled to the swinging bell for this system to accurately measure the swinging angle and direction.
The label on the motor control computer PCB should read 'SENSOR.' For motors without a code wheel and sensor, a proximity switch is used for motion feedback. In that case, verify that the CPU chip on the intelliSwing Precision motion controller has a label that reads 'PERIOD' and use the MagForce programming procedure.
For each bell we need to calculate the value for Transmission. Take the diameter in inches of the wheel (on the rim where the chain runs) times 6.28 (2π) and divide the result by the number of teeth on the cog (for 1⁄2 inch chain pitch). For example a 60 inch wheel with a 28 tooth cog will have a transmission ratio value of 13.45 (the system will accept values from 5.0 to 45.0).
If the sensor is not attached to the motor shaft, simply divide the diameter of the pulley on the bell shaft by the diameter of the pulley on the sensor shaft to obtain the Transmission ratio (for standard 48 slot code wheels).
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
60.4 17 #46.8
804 *16 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.
Check operation of the sensor. Move the bell by hand and you should hear the phase reversing relay click when the bell reverses direction.
Set Swing Angle and other initial parameters
Set %Start to 50. The default is 95. This is the percentage of the swing angle that the motor will be energized on the first pulses before the P-Regulator value takes control from Start to Swing mode.
Set %Brake to zero while in the setup mode to prevent overheating while testing.
Set Angle to a modest value like 25.0 degrees to determine the bell swings safely before going higher.
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 error 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 be swung twice (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 ‘Swing’. The second time will say ‘Start’ then ‘Calc-P’ then Swing.
First Swing Test
Calculating the ideal impulse
Press ON to start the first 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. This can be done while the bell is swinging as the calculation will be performed as you make these changes.
- If the bell kicks too high on the first pulse, reduce power in the %Start (first) and PowerStaSwi (second if you still have too much power) parameters.
- If the bell seems to be fighting itself to get started, change Polarity
- If you get ‘ErrBlo’ (blocked bell), double check the sensor hookup and operation. Double check
all motor current connections for integrity (the most common point of failure).
- 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 higher or 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 a value not equal to I-regulator. It will use your parameters and expect you to verify that your values 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 has not been written to permanent 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. In a peal, you should have at least 2 to 3 bpm difference in the Tempo between individual bells. If you cannot accomplish this by modifying swinging angles, then you can add mass to the top of the headstock to slow a bell down.
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)
- Tempo (speed of ringing in beats per minute)
- Swing Angle (intended angle)
- Transmission (rotary cog to wheel ratio)
- %Start (portion of swing angle for starting pulses)
- %Brake (portion of swing angle of braking pulses)
- Polarity (correspondence of motor and sensor wiring direction +/-)
- Brake Angle (angle where brake switches from Power Brake 1 to 2)
- PowerStaSwi (power reduction using soft-start current limiting 1-8, 9=full current)
- Power Brake 1 (first brake current limit)
- Power Brake 2 (second brake current limit)
- MaxAmpl (maximum angle before error and shutdown)
- P-Regulator (Proportional regulation factor)
- I-Regulator (Integration regulation factor = 0 after automatic calculations)
- 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)