Nova lathe update

Drew Watson

Member
Messages
2,070
Location
Salt Spring Island, BC Canada
Well the new cover arrived today. Thanks To Tim for such good service. As soon as it was in my hands it was on the lathe. Did a little re wiring of the shop to bring the 220 to the lathe and that is when the disapointment hit me. The display screen was not working with the new voltage. For those not familiar with the DVRXP it is a direct drive lathe that is circuit board controled and it has a variable speed controls on a display screen. It has 5 pre set speeds and then you can scroll through the speeds from 100 rpm up to 3500 rpm. It normally displays all the time as you go. Well this one wasn't. It would if you stopped it but as soon as you touched it to increase or decrease the speed it would go blank. Once stopped and started again it would display for a second or two and then go blank again. The lathe would increase or decrease in speed but the display wouldn't show it. I ended up putting the old circuit board back in as it at least displays properly. So back on the phone with Tim again tomorrow. Argggg :bang::bang::bang:
 
Well that just plain sucks, sorry for your troubles :(

Hey Stu it is just a pain more than anything. I talked with Tim and he is mystified as to what the problem could be. He has done just what he has with everycase before and solved the problem. I guess I am just the lucky one. Anyways he is sending out a new display board to see if this fix's the problem. Fingers are crossed.
 
Sorry to hear this Drew, its a pity such a good product has these issues. :(

Makes no logical electrical sense to me.

Either the system was designed initially for 220v and they made a plan for it to operate in the 120v environments but the display part and speed monitoring part would have been low voltage dc all along to be able to do the computation etc.

So you changing it out from 120 to 220 logically should not have affected any of the speed monitoring and control circuitry if the design was done properly in the first place.

I hope they clear this up. I have always felt if i go for a new lathe that this was the one for me so i am following closely.
 
Sorry about your lathe problems, Drew.

I just goes to show how finicky electronics can be. This can happen on anyones product since most of the electronics are made by relatively few manufacturers.

We have a lot of power problems (voltage dips and lightning strike issues) at the paper mill where we have many variable speed drives. Some of the new ABBs are really nice and reliable, but it seems like you get a bad one every once in a while.

The mill is about 120 miles west of the powerhouse that supplies electricity. When a storm moves through, everyone is on pins an needles for about an hour after it is gone.

Needless to say, I keep my VS lathe unplugged when I am not using it.
 
Drew, have you checked your actual power at the lathe?

I remember Alex had some troubles with his DVR in the summer, they were having brown outs and it caused all kinds of troubles for him :dunno:
 
Drew, have you checked your actual power at the lathe?

I remember Alex had some troubles with his DVR in the summer, they were having brown outs and it caused all kinds of troubles for him :dunno:

I checked the voltage before hooking it up and I have 234 volts but that shouldn't make that much difference as the same variation happens with the 120 ( not actually 120). The voltage in the area is really stable as we have a main sub station just down the road ( less than an 1/4 of a mile away) so were are almost right off the main grid.

I questioned about the voltage change and the old lathes that you had to take a jumper off to run at the 240 volt. The new boards don't require that anymore as the board does all the voltage rectifications. Tim said that the circuit on the cover ( that is not on the new cover) is just a noise suppression circuit that has no effect on the voltage change so it is eliminated in the fix.

As Tim said this problem is a first for him as this fix has worked on all Lathes before. I asked about the fact that these are being made in China now but Tim said that they are only getting the cast beds and such from China all the rest comes from New Zealand.

The Lathe itself is a fantastic Lathe that I would recomend to anyone as it has such great qualities and is so versitile. I have seen demo's with guys turning amazing things with this lathe. I know that this will get resolved. Tim is great to deal with and is being really helpful.
 
Sorry about your lathe problems, Drew.

I just goes to show how finicky electronics can be. This can happen on anyones product since most of the electronics are made by relatively few manufacturers.

We have a lot of power problems (voltage dips and lightning strike issues) at the paper mill where we have many variable speed drives. Some of the new ABBs are really nice and reliable, but it seems like you get a bad one every once in a while.

The mill is about 120 miles west of the powerhouse that supplies electricity. When a storm moves through, everyone is on pins an needles for about an hour after it is gone.

Needless to say, I keep my VS lathe unplugged when I am not using it.

Most electronics I find either work or they don't. Once in a while you do get a bad board or something gets cracked during shipping but this is not either of those as the lathe does work fine on the 120 ( besides the original problem of the "lowvoltage Fault" issue). I have the lathe hooked up to a protection bar on 120 the kind you use on your computer. The 240 will be hooked to a special breaker that will act the same as the power bar. Any voltage spikes trip the breaker. Where we are located here on the west coast we don't get any lightning strikes like they get on the praires.
 
Sorry to hear this Drew, its a pity such a good product has these issues. :(

Makes no logical electrical sense to me.

Either the system was designed initially for 220v and they made a plan for it to operate in the 120v environments but the display part and speed monitoring part would have been low voltage dc all along to be able to do the computation etc.

So you changing it out from 120 to 220 logically should not have affected any of the speed monitoring and control circuitry if the design was done properly in the first place.

I hope they clear this up. I have always felt if i go for a new lathe that this was the one for me so i am following closely.

Yea Rob this is weird as it doesn't make sence to me or Tim and it will just have to be a trial and error issue for the time being till we get the problem solved. Tim is great to deal with and is being really helpful. I was feeling like this was going to be an issue to deal with but so far it hasn't been. This is the first problem that I have ever heard of with this lathe.
 
Drew,
Have you tried the lathe in the 120 mode without the surge protection. Maybe it is causing the problem. You've now got the 240 version to fall back on so ya got notun to loose tryen it...:huh:

Don the problem isn't with the 120 it is with the 240. The surge protector is not the issue ( and I have used it with and without) and it works great on the 120. All the problems have been happening only when it is hooked up to the 240 and that is currently not on a surge protector. I will be installing a circuit breaker that has a surge protector built into it for the 240. I have it set back up on the 120 until the next board arrives so that I still have full use of the lathe.
 
Drew,
When I asked about the surge protection, I was refering to the "Low Voltage message" on the display. Does it happen without thew surge protection in place ?

Yes Don, It happens with and without the surge protector in place. The message only happens when I am rough turning a blank or spindle and it catches. It shuts down the lathe and will not start again until I push the stop button and then restart it. I thought this was a normal function of the lathe for months until I went onto the Nova site and found that someone else had the same situation and at that time the reply informed me that this was not a "normal function of the machine. I also wanted to upgrade to the 240 volt anyways as it goes from 1 3/4 hp to a 2 hp with the voltage increase. Having the option for both was a selling feature.
 
Latest from the lathe front. I had a knock on the door today and it was the Postal delivery guy with the parcel in his hands that I have been waiting for that Tim from Tecknatools sent. The new circut board to replace the display curcuit. I of course hooked it up right away and changed the back plate that Tim had sent last week. It worked no flashing screen and it ran smooth. Ok to simply say that it ran smooth is an understatement it ran better than smooth it was like having a brand new totally different lathe. I ran it through it's paces and the things that tripped it up before didn't even phase it. I am very impressed with this lathe even more so than from before. :thumb::thumb::thumb: I also threw up a sheet of plastic to catch all the wood chips and boy that works great.
 

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I will be honest that I did have my doubts as to that being the solution but it was and I was on it all day just to make sure that it was working properly. Like I said it was a huge change. The incresae from the 120 volt to 240 was just a 1/4 hp increase but can I ever tell the difference. I just want to spend the day on it today but my youngest has his Grad ceremony today. :thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Glad this worked out for you. My lathe parts are still in WV I am hoping when they return, I can post the same good results.
 
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