Control All Your Pumps at Once

The Edwards TAG Turbo and active gauge controller is a highly useful piece of equipment, allowing the seamless and simultaneous activation of both scroll and turbo pumps at the push of a button. The display provides a handy indication of what percentage of its target spin speed the turbo pump is at; always handy for when you're not sure when to fire up the ion gauge without burning out the filament.

The Edwards TAG Turbo and active gauge controller is programable in a variety of ways, and our different chambers have different programs depending on chamber volume; our largest allows a full three minutes of rough pumping by the scroll pump before the controller starts to spin up the turbo pump. This protects the expensive turbo from being run at too high a pressure.

The controller is also a much easier way to view error messages and status alerts from the pumps, instead of relying on the blinking service and warning lights on the pump. Not to mention that starting and stopping the entire pumping apparatus at the touch of a button simplifies operations greatly.

The only downside to the Edwards TAG Turbo and active gauge controller is that a special splitter cable is required if you want to hook up the pump to the nST2 Pump Control and Diagnostic Software that is free to download from Edwards. These cables are pricey, but live diagnostics from the scroll pumps are invaluable. This is only a minor downside, however.

If you are running Edwards Scroll and Turbo pumps, this is an absolute must. The one pictured in this review was hiding behind some boxes in another part of the company and I let out an audible exclamation of joy at seeing it; so vital are they to the running of our lab. You won't be disappointed!