comparisons of teco drives?

there are two options of the TECO 1HP VFD's:

FM50 and JNEV.

any major differences, or advantages of one over the other?

The FM50 is old, discontinued by Teco officially in 2006, although there are still a lot of them in surplus around the country. The EV (JNEV) is the 2nd generation of that product where Teco fixed a number of deficiencies in the original design. Among them:
The FM50 was not a Vector Drive, the EV is.
The FM50 did not have a pot on the front, the EV does.
The FM50 had no option for a remote keypad, the EV does.
The FM50 did not have PID, the EV does.
The FM50 cannot have an external braking module added to it, the EV can.

thanks. given the price difference is $10, I guess I will go with the newer tech.

anchorman said:

thanks. given the price difference is $10, I guess I will go with the newer tech.

Click to expand...

I would. The only reason not to is if you are daunted by having to set up a Vector Drive, because they must be "tuned" to the motor. If I'm not mistaken, the EV will do what is called "auto-tuning" wherein you uncouple the motor and connect the drive, then engage the auto-tune mode. It turns the motor and runs through a series of tests to set its own tuning parameters, then it's done. Only if you ever have to swap out the drive in the future does that have to be done again on the replacement. Not a big deal really, but some people get intimidated by programming issues. The FM50 is simpler.

However, if you are not going to use the Vector feature, you can just disable it in the EV and it becomes equally stupid as the FM50, but for $10 more you get the ability to add external braking, which is something you may find very useful.