Nova DVR XP

[Joe Luzich]

I have a problem. When I turn the lathe on it gives me a low voltage message and nothing. No RPM's at all. I contacted Tim Geist about the problem and informed me that there was this same problem on others. He proceed to tell me how to disassemble it and fix the electronics. Has anyone else had this problem. And has anyone else been dissatisfied with the service. I took it to woodcraft where I bought it and he has been trying to contact Tim but with no luck. Chris at Woodcraft has been extremely helpful. The lathe is only 1 1/2 yrs old.

[Robert Snowden]

Look on the nova web site there is numbers to nova and to Tim listed.I call the overseas number and they called back in a hour and several times after the frist call to check on the problem. I am very happy with my nova dvr xp. Hope this helps.Robert

[Alan Trout]

I have called Tim a couple of times to ask questions about my DVR and have always been able to get a hold of him as long as you call during the hours listed. I think the time is between 6AM and 2PM eastern time.

I know I have heard of bad boards before and from what I understand they are not that hard to replace. I believe this is a link from the Teknatool web site that gives you pictorial instructions on how to do it. http://www.teknatool.com/products/Lathes/DVR%20XP/Downloads/Changing%20the%20DVR%20Control%20Board%20-%20without%20removing%20the%20head%E2%80%A6.pdf

Did Tim tell you it was a bad board and that he would send you a replacement? I have always found Tim to be very knowledgeable and friendly. Which I have always ranked as major components of good service.

I am sure if you took your headstock off and sent it to Tim he would replace what needed to be done. But that would be expensive and time consuming. If they will send you the part that is usually the best option for everyone.

Alan

[Skip Spaulding]

I have had a couple of small problems with my 1624 and Tim has been great about addressing them.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have had mine for 2 1/2 yrs now and everytime I call Tim and he is always extremely helpful in resolving my problems. Like was noted call between 6 am and 2 pm EST.

[Brian Novotny]

I'm only going to say what I'm going to say because you're still under warranty with teknatool (world leader in customer service)

The local general dealer in Los Angeles told me that since the inception of EVS more and more are going out. He told me that the only two brands that he hadden't heard about one going out is general and oneway.....and I don't know if I believe him about general......he told me the jet's and powermatics are about $1100 a pop to fix. I can't believe someone told you to try and fix the electronics!!! Professionals usually just order the new part.....they can't even fix that stuff......I'll stick with jesus and "grandma"<that's what I call my lathe......So my next and final upgrade is going to be to a Oneway....There's no going up from there......come to think of it, that's the one lathe I've never bashed.....I'm shooting for 9 months......it'll be my only child.......that I'm aware of!<sarcasm.......most likely.....>:rolleyes:<(it's nice to figure out that this little guy means sarcasm so I'm not taken the wrong way)

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.....:D

[Richard Madison]

Sounds like your local dealer sells general and oneway. Do you suppose that he might have nearby competitors who sell Nova, or Jet and PM? Just wondering.

[Brian Novotny]

Sounds like your local dealer sells general and oneway. Do you suppose that he might have nearby competitors who sell Nova, or Jet and PM? Just wondering.
He sells jet and pm too. No Nova.

[Brian Novotny]

Since he doesn't sell nova and he didn't mention nova going out, I'm going to take him for a pretty honest guy. Any company can have a freek occurance of a bad batch, but he made it seem like maybe jet and pm jumped the gun early on....I'm sure many bugs have been worked out by now.

If you got the anwering machine at teknatool it might take a day or two to get back to you, but if you try back a little later it seems like they're never gone for long. Those guys really rock. I really do believe that no company can beat their customer service.....they'll take good care of the situation.

[Alan Trout]

Brian,

I really don't think you understand how these EVS drives work on these lathes. You have made some statements that don't make a lot of sense.

The drives on most modern EVS lathes are VFD type drives. This stands for "Variable Frequency Drive". VFD drives have been used for many years in the industrial machine tool world and are well proven. VFD drives have been used on every kind of machine tool you can imagine. Dependability in the manufacturing sector is of upmost importance because when a machine is down they are not making money. If they were not dependable they would not be used. The real differences between the drives on the PM, Oneway, Robust, Jet, etc. are who manufactured the drive but technically they are identical.

A decent drive for a 3 HP motor can be had for under $400. If I owned a Jet or a PM and my VFD went out and WMH group wanted to charge me $1100 I would just source a VFD from a different manufacture. That is one of the advantages to having a lathe function with and induction motor and a VFD drive.

The DVR is a completly different animal. It functions as no other lathe on the market. It has a stator and a solid rotor. There are no windings on the rotor. In the simplest terms it has a micro computer that controls pulses to the stator which turns the rotor. In generic terms these are called a switch reluctance motor or SR motor. Teknatool calls them of course DVR motors or "Digital Variable Relucatance". It is my understanding the reason that you can increase HP as you increase voltage is that the higher voltage increases the strenghth of the field on the stator windings which increases power. This makes these motors kind of unique.

These SR type motor has been also used in the industrial sector for specialized applications and have also been proven to be very dependible.

From my understanding the cost to replace the electronics in the DVR are similar to that of a VFD type drive. but of course is only single source.

Good Luck

Alan

[D-Alan Grogg]

I can chime in with my recent experience. I have a 4 1/2 year old Nova DVR 3000. Recently, I have been getting frequent "Current Overload" faults only when pressing the "On" button. Cycling through "Off" and the back to "On" one or more times brings the lathe up to speed. Obviously, this is not a good thing. Everything else about the lathe's operation is normal.

We contacted Tim Geist. He is having me remove the control board and control panel and send them to him for repair (quoting in the $65-$70 range, not including my reponsibility for shipping it to him). So far, he's been very helpful. I'm not sure why he would have you try to fix the electronics yourself. That would take some special tools and some experience and the right parts. I wouldn't want to try it and I have the required background. Sounds very unusual if that's what he suggested.

Regarding my perception of the Nova DVR, this is the first time that I've had qualms about my purchase of this lathe. I've invested close to $2800 in all (outrigger, bed extension, chucks). I'd hate for this to become a useless, oversized paper weight if support for this high tech tool was discontinued at some point in the future. If anything, I expected this machine to be more reliable than a similar low tech machine.

[Dave Lehnert]

Just a thought.

I would try a local electronic repair place. (Tv, VCR's etc...)
May get the repair done cheaper than what your shipping would cost.

I have done this in the past (not a lathe) and the repair was under $25.

[Ralph Lindberg]

I assume Tim had you open the circuit area and clean out all the saw-dust? Saw-dust is probably the largest single-point failure mode of electronic lathes, and actually also the easiest to fix

[D-Alan Grogg]

I assume Tim had you open the circuit area and clean out all the saw-dust? Saw-dust is probably the largest single-point failure mode of electronic lathes, and actually also the easiest to fix

I had essentially zero sawdust inside my headstock (after 4 1/2 years!). So, that's not the cause for my situation.