Thread: What's in a reasonable Hercus Tooling Kit

Well I waved the magic plastic card and the following have appeared



Hopefully that will get me started?

if the siemens ones are any thing like the dc ones they are very complicated

Originally Posted by azzrock

if the siemens ones are any thing like the dc ones they are very complicated

I have no idea what the Siemens DC drives are like... but I have a Siemens Micromaster Vector on my X3 mill (I converted it to VFD because I did not like it's DC drive). And I feel it is as easy or complicated to program as any of the other VFD that I have. On the Emco lathe I have a Telemechanique Altivar 28, on the Waldown drill press a Lenze 8200 (same as the AC-Tech ACN), on the Hercus 260 a Yaskawa Varispeed V7, and I just received another Yaskawa VS mini J7 that I want to put on the Hegner scroll saw. They are really all very much comparable when it comes to setup and programming.

The one I like best is actually the Yaskawa V7, but only because it has a control panel that detaches and can be built into a control panel - it then hooks up to the VFD with a cheap straight network cable. Except the Lenze, I bought them all as new old stock from eBay Germany and France at a small fraction the list price here downunder. To find a bargain on eBay, it wil pay off to search in German or French. Even if the seller does not list the item as posting to Australia, you just have to ask. And do your homework what are the cheapest postage options - usually there is a small parcel option up to 2kg weight for little money. 2kg is enough for a 2 or 3HP VFD. It may take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive, but its worth the wait. You have to seach in ebay for "variateur de vitesse" for the French offerings, and "frequenzumrichter" for the German offerings. The voltage is no problem, Europe has 230V and we have 240V and most single phase VFD's I know of are rated 200 to 240V and are the same units that you can buy here too. If you have time to look around and compare and bid at the last moment (that is usually in the middle of night over here), you can buy a new or nerly new VFD for as little as a quater its Australian list price. They are simply much more common over there. Of course, you take a risk with the warranty, but I feel it's worth it and it paid off very well for me.

One hint though, stay away from older models. Stick to current models that are sold as new. Reason is the 400V bus capacitors need re-forming (a slowly increasing voltage must be applied over several hours) when unused for several years - otherwise they can short out and "explode" when confronted with the full line voltage. And these capacitors are near impossible to buy, because every maker uses his own size and shape to fit into their smallish VFD housings. Simply avoid to buy older VFD's - small horsepower VDS's are regarded by their makers as consumables not worth repairing, use and toss away so to speak. Chris