The right to repair your equipment is in the news lately, with people asking Congress to make it easier. The cost of a new VSD @ $1500.00 is eye-opening when I have seen them for 20 percent of that value. New drives come with a manual that explains each parameter and gives various typical settings. I have a background in VSD's from work(retired electronics technician / large pharmaceutical company), so after I purchased my Grizzly G0733, I gathered information so I could replace my VSD. I made a presentation at our local wood-turners club about VSD repair and replacement, and was openly criticized by multiple people because of that presentation. I understand copyright infringement, but isn't that what I did every day at my old job, replacing, repairing and reprogramming electronic equipment myself instead of buying the "off the shelf" version? Am I the bad guy because I choose to learn how my or my former employer's equipment worked?
I think its great you know how to repair/replace/program a VFD. I don’t understand why any woodturner would criticize that. Glad you’re a part of the GGMG, as we need knowledgeble folks who can help members with issues when they might arise. I hope you will have a willingness to give others guidance when thy get stuck. David Roseman has a G0733 and has done some programming of hiis VFD, and others who have had a need to add a braking resistor,etc.
Good that you can repair your VFD yourself. I googled "can a person use copyrighted material for personal use" and noted the following: "Personal use is when an individual uses a copyrighted work for private purposes, such as learning or entertainment. Personal use is a right given in the Copyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution, however, an issue arises when the individual wants to make a copy of the copyrighted work". Also, the underlying issue depends on what was copyrighted. Another Google search on "Can PLC parameters be copyrighted?" yielded the following: "The copyright of the finished PLC program is almost certainly owned by the customer, not the integrator. " But I'm not an attorney, am not giving legal advice, so those are just my own opinions.
