VFD repair

JDWARE

JDWARE

Joined
Nov 28, 2011
Messages
287
My ten year old KBAC VFD failed last week. Worked fine one day and then dead the next morning. There was no "Status Light". A tech at KB Electric walked me through some simple tests, confirming it was nothing I could fix myself. So, I've replaced it with another KBAC.

Seems common wisdom is that ten to twelve years is a good life on the electronics. But ....... has anyone had one repaired? Maybe replaced failed electronic components? If so, can you recommend a repair shop and what was the cost? Thinking to remove the circuit boards from the NEMA housing in order to ship them. Would be nice to have a back-up.

BTW, can't speak highly enough of KB Electric and Electric Motor Warehouse for their excellent service.

Saludos
J
 
Did KB tech dept not able to do repairs? I've never dealt with the company but seems like I remember other folks sending in units for repair.
 
Ken H> said:
Did KB tech dept not able to do repairs? I've never dealt with the company but seems like I remember other folks sending in units for repair.
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KB said they currently have about an eight week backlog of repairs and did not seem too excited about working on this ten year old drive. I can understand that, for them, it may not make economic sense to work on it..........after all, it's ten years old, it's not especially expensive, they can sell me a new one, they don't have to worry about it failing again in a few months and having to fix it under warranty, their repair department is backed up with bigger, higher priority work............

It's possible that a smaller, independent repair shop might not have the same worries.

J
 
A.McPherson said:
Send it to me, I used to fix electronics for a living in the army...
If I can figure it out I'll send it back to you, if not I'll get it recycled.
Or send it back if you want to send it to a real shop.
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If you get the drive for repair please update us all to problem with drive.
 
I do a voltage in, voltage out, @ key points. I have a KBAC and could find that Gremlin. Do you have a multi meter?
 
A.McPherson said:
Send it to me, I used to fix electronics for a living in the army...
If I can figure it out I'll send it back to you, if not I'll get it recycled.
Or send it back if you want to send it to a real shop.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind offer, but I'd prefer to send it out to a shop with specific experience with these. Safely, quickly and reliably shipping into and out of Mexico is not an inexpensive proposition.

Judcargile said:
I do a voltage in, voltage out, @ key points. I have a KBAC and could find that Gremlin. Do you have a multi meter?
Click to expand...
(Main) Voltage in and out were two of the tests the KBAC tech suggested - voltage in was good. No voltage at all coming out. The voltage out tests were performed with the various power/run and control switch leads reversed as well. Yes, I do have a multi-meter. I have already connected the new KBAC and removed some of the switches from the old one.
 
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JDWARE said:
Thanks for the kind offer, but I'd prefer to send it out to a shop with specific experience with these. Safely, quickly and reliably shipping into and out of Mexico is not an inexpensive proposition.
Click to expand...
JDWARE , circuit boards are just that , circuit boards :) Any good electrician who repairs circuit boards will fix them . I have a friend who would fix the satellite circuit board .... Did you do visual inspection inside ? Sometimes the defect is visible to the eye ?
 
Natlek said:
JDWARE , circuit boards are just that , circuit boards :) Any good electrician who repairs circuit boards will fix them . I have a friend who would fix the satellite circuit board .... Did you do visual inspection inside ? Sometimes the defect is visible to the eye ?
Click to expand...
Components being replaced costs more than a new board, Lots of excellent electricians never get asked to solder anything and todays electronics are not designed to be serviced at the component level.
 
When you shine a light through your opposite side of a circuit board, you will see exactly where something smoked.
 
Natlek said:
JDWARE , circuit boards are just that , circuit boards :) Any good electrician who repairs circuit boards will fix them . I have a friend who would fix the satellite circuit board .... Did you do visual inspection inside ? Sometimes the defect is visible to the eye ?
Click to expand...
Good point. Will see if there is a local shop here that may be able to diagnose and repair it.
Judcargile said:
Components being replaced costs more than a new board, Lots of excellent electricians never get asked to solder anything and todays electronics are not designed to be serviced at the component level.
Click to expand...

Also a good point. But there is still a culture here in Mexico that will fix something rather than throw it out..... for many reasons, "things" like VFD's are expensive and labor is still relatively inexpensive.
 
Note, it won't be an "electrical" shop you're looking for to repair, but an electronics tech repair shop.

I know what you're talking about with the "repair culture". I lived in Isla Mujeres (anchored in my boat) for a while and also in Guatemala and saw that repair mentality first hand, from winding an electric motor by hand to making a round wood dowel by hand using a hand plane.
 
JDWARE JDWARE
Ah! I didn't look too see where you were from!

As far as into and out of Mexico, you could just send it to some folks I know in Boquillas, MX, I live about a half hour from the border.
But shipping there would still probably cost you an arm and a leg, Boquillas is in the middle of nowhere in Coahuilla, in the Area Natural Protediga Maderas del Carmen.
Plus you're probably right about getting better service from a specialty shop. I've got some basic electronics repair equipment, but not enough to do a real deep dive. I do have the same drive that is working, so I could probably find the problem.
But really, a local shop would probably be better!
 
Ken H> said:
from winding an electric motor by hand
Click to expand...
Uggh! That was one of my first electronics gigs after getting out of the military. Rebuilding surgical handpieces, including rebuilding motors from scratch, building the stator stack, winding it, applying confirmormal coating... Ick. Not a fun time.
 
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