Unidrive

I was wondering if any of you have an opinionon unindrive.
they seem raly cool i i was just intrudused to them. Ihave been told that they will take over the plc but wanted to here more from other people.

http://www.controltechniques.com/

the power and capabilitys of the system adn the low price seem almost too good? I dont know i am to new to the industry to make a solid disition.

Run FAR.

Run FAST.

Don't believe what you hear.

But then, that's my opinion.

regards.....casey

They have a five year warranty on the drives. Good thing too. You WILL use the warranty. That's almost guaranteed. But they do stand behind it if you can live with the downtime.

Be careful of their promises also, especially on the application side. They aren't afraid to take stuff on. They just might have trouble pulling it off. But they will die trying.

Keith

I agree wit Keith.
The Unidrive sound like great idea but it need to be improve.
The Unidrive is not so reliable and fail in complex application.
I would not consider to use it for servo application.

Not hardly

Ihave been told that they will take over the plc

Click to expand...

Can't quite see that. Where is the advantage? Less flexibility and probably higher cost for simple apps. I'm no expert on Unidrive but we have a system using 3 or 4 of them (used to be more but it has been pulled apart so many times in the past). Anyway, it was my turn to have a go at increasing the efficiency of this system and when I checked I was astounded at the way the original designer had chosen to do certain things. There is still a PLC in the system, yet he has various drives doing their own calculations (simple ones), feedback does not involve the PLC, and there are counters and stuff which display on the HMI, which, by the way, is integrated with the PLC - it's a Siemens C7 panel. The motion control is in no way complex, the job could have been done with simpler servos (maybe even VSDs)and use the money to fire in a decent HMI and a CPU which can crunch all the numbers easily. They've even got a servo driving a gearbox for a conveyor where speed control is not crucial but feedback to other parts of the system is. In other words the motor speed is highly accurate but if the web slips the other devices (depositors,etc.)don't know about it as the feedback loops just ensure each individual drive is doing what it's told. It just seems that there is no need for this - it's like SMC pushing controllers built into solenoid blocks and manifolds - the chances of you having an application that one of those kind of products is tailor made for are pretty slim.

(wheeze) I'll lie down now...

---

It's hard to make a program foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Personally, i think CT stuff is excellent. We use it all the time. We just send process data to all drives and then let each drive decide for itself what to do.

6
year
old
post

Gil47 said:

6
year
old
post

Click to expand...

I'm in the middle of removing a CT drive system and installing Siemens S120 drive system.

The CT drives have Profibus modules that are obsolete, failing, and there is no solution from the manufacturer. The end user has experienced a lot of downtime and has no solution other than to convert.

I would have kept the CT drives and changed to ethernet. We installed a load of S120 and G120's last year and have had nothing but trouble (Customer specified!!)

We had to swap out 9 drives after installation as siemens told us they could catch fire due to an incorrect component being installed. To be fair, they stood the cost but the customer wasn't happy about the downtime as siemens would not allow the machine to be used until they were changed!!

CT Do a profibus slave module also so not sure why you are saying it is obsolete??
http://www.controltechniques.com/CT...ns/communications/communications modules.aspx

I feel your pain on the Unidrives. luckily the last one on site has given in. The drive was sent to a local agent for repairs (22KW). Quoted price was a 1000 dollars more than a brand new Lenze drive, so guess where that Unidrive is now

briancr said:

I feel your pain on the Unidrives. luckily the last one on site has given in. The drive was sent to a local agent for repairs (22KW). Quoted price was a 1000 dollars more than a brand new Lenze drive, so guess where that Unidrive is now

Click to expand...

It always depend on what you do with it, if it is just to change the speed on a fan, don't spend the money for a better drive, just find the costless one and go...

Sometimes you need more control on the motor speed and feedback, sometimes an easier to manage product etc.

Drive and PLC guys are always in separate world and you need to be aware when someone say: this drive can replace your PLC...
for positioning they are right most of the time but even if you can do sequencing on some drive, it is way better doing it in a standard way inside a PLC program...Thrust me on that, i've tried and still do some in repeated project where programming devellopement in the drive can worth the time and i hate it...(Throuble shooting is a nightmare and no-ones can understand it clearly like going online with a ladder program....)

Unidrive itself can handle permanent magnet motor and have so many features like a Siemens drive that most of the time you pay for stuff that you will never use... so others cheaper are better....But when you need that improvement, use it

I let other talk about these drive on the long run use because i have no idea on the their life