VANE VP-930 Chassis Dynamometer

Can anyone give me any info on an old VANE VP-930 Chassis Dynamometer?

I miss having a dyno and there is one for sale. I know its a dinosaur but I cannot afford a modern unit.

It looks like it has a retarder but just wanted to check are these steady state units?

Did they have inputs for RPM,o2 etc?

it says you can connect to your laptop with the software but it also comes with a VERY basic looking hand controller. Is the software still available for them? A quick google did not come up with much?

Basically If I can tell it to hold a certain speed for steady state tuning and do power runs id be happy.

I havent seen a 930 before but I have upgraded a couple of 4000's for myself and a 950 for someone else in the past. If it is similar to the 950 then it is a decent backbone as a starting point to modernise, but they are not very useful with the original control system. It is all analog electronics, there is no PC connection, no logging or recording. There are no other inputs (there is an RPM input but it is just for the small tacho gauge on the front panel, not used for any control). They do have a steady state "road speed control" mode that possibly worked ok when the hardware was all new, in good condition and calibrated/tuned correctly, but being 30 or more years old it is unlikely to be great today.

The 4000's and 950's are more useful as they have big retarders - from memory CC160's rated for around 1600Nm, the 930 I think only had a CC65 rated for about 480Nm. It may be just big enough to hold about 150-200kW in a tuning situation.

I’ve come across Dynertia which has a product that allows you to upgrade to digital, based here in Australia.

biggest problem in facing atm is the dyno runs off 3-phase power, my old dyno was single phase 20amp so I was hoping I can do the same with this but I’m not sure if that’s possible?

Dynertia doesnot have any load control capability however so it is not a great option if you want to do steady state or have any kind of repeatability for tuning. I have used a Land and Sea control system on my one and a Sport devices system on the other one I done. You are looking at about ~$10K for either of these options though depending how much you can do yourself. There is another low cost system I have seen a bit lately that may be worth looking at too - search "yourdyno".

Im not sure about the 930, but if it is anything like the 4000 and 950 then most of it operates off single phase, the 3 phase is only used for the two fan motors. If you change the fan motors it will all operate off single phase. There will likely be a big transformer in the bottom of the cabinet, if you follow the wires from that up to the power connections on the top cabinet you will notice it is only connected to a single phase and neutral.

Thanks Adam! after reading up on "yourdyno" I think thats the way Im going to go! build my own hub dyno. Its actually all very straight forward. Fabrication and machining is not a problem for me. YourDyno covers all the electronics. I just need to find some good Retarders now.