CNCdrive is Garbage

I'm sure this post will get deleted, but I hope I can save someone some cash by not selecting this product. Bought 3 DG4S-16035 drives for a mill with servo motors I was retro fitting. I spent many weeks trying to tune them. All I got was run-on noise and garbage movement. Tons of messages with the distributor and a number of emails with the company resulted in nothing.

Save your money. Save your time. Don't buy these. They are crap.

Oh, and if you think I did something wrong and you feel you can make them work properly, I am more than willing to sell them to you, at a reduced price!

I'm using the same drives on my plasma machine for around 2 years. I have no problems whatsoever.

Well, if you want 3 more, they are yours for a good price! You have no idea how much time I spent working on these things bro. Months went by!

I finally threw them in the corner and moved to Larken drivers and I have absolutely no problems at all. This is NOT a plug for Larken, but if you are retrofitting a commercial product, DO NOT buy CNCdrive drivers. You will thank me later.

How much you want for them?

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Originally Posted by OlfCNC

How much you want for them?

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Watch out for the Swedish duty fees and VAT (moms). It may be cheaper to buy directly from Hungary brand new than from Canada. Also they may be damaged by now... unless you know that the seller actually knows enough about how to handle and connect these things without damaging them.

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Originally Posted by A_Camera

Watch out for the Swedish duty fees and VAT (moms). It may be cheaper to buy directly from Hungary brand new than from Canada. Also they may be damaged by now... unless you know that the seller actually knows enough about how to handle and connect these things without damaging them.

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Good warnings all around. Considering I have an electronics background, these units are in no way damaged by me. Many weeks were spent tweaking the power supply driving them, wiring and rewiring the machine ensuring there were no grounding issues that might cause the run-on, tweaking the settings - all to no avail. I even sent videos showing the problem to the manufacturer - after doing that I heard nothing from them.

OlfCNC, save your money and time - don't buy them. Look at another brand. Frankly, I doubt I will sell them, considering I wouldn't want to put someone through the same headache I went through. It is possible they *might* work properly driving stepper motors rather than servos, but I wouldn't want to take the chance knowing what I know now.

Don't worry, I take the risk as I have 4 of them running perfectly for 2 years on my plasma machine. :)
So, how much are you askin for them?

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Originally Posted by A_Camera

Watch out for the Swedish duty fees and VAT (moms). It may be cheaper to buy directly from Hungary brand new than from Canada. Also they may be damaged by now... unless you know that the seller actually knows enough about how to handle and connect these things without damaging them.

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I thought the guy is so unsatisfied that he might sell it for cheap enough.:o
I'm satisfied enough with these drives that I could use them on my next machine if I will decide building one in the future. I have some nice servos left in the shelf for them.

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Originally Posted by mrogowski

I'm sure this post will get deleted, but I hope I can save someone some cash by not selecting this product. Bought 3 DG4S-16035 drives for a mill with servo motors I was retro fitting. I spent many weeks trying to tune them. All I got was run-on noise and garbage movement. Tons of messages with the distributor and a number of emails with the company resulted in nothing.

Save your money. Save your time. Don't buy these. They are crap.

Oh, and if you think I did something wrong and you feel you can make them work properly, I am more than willing to sell them to you, at a reduced price!

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I will give it a try and if they work fine, you will get them back. Where are you from? I am located in Warsaw area. Feel free to contact me and I will try to help you - Sebastian

Wys?ane z mojego SM-G930F przy u?yciu Tapatalka

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrogowski

Good warnings all around. Considering I have an electronics background, these units are in no way damaged by me. Many weeks were spent tweaking the power supply driving them, wiring and rewiring the machine ensuring there were no grounding issues that might cause the run-on, tweaking the settings - all to no avail. I even sent videos showing the problem to the manufacturer - after doing that I heard nothing from them.

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Perhaps all the "tweaking" killed the drivers... Why would there be a need to "tweak" the power supplies?

I fully understand that you have not heard anything from CNC Drive if your contacts with CNC Drive were in the same tone as this thread. CNC Drive is giving excellent support but you have to understand how to communicate politely. Even though you are frustrated because of failures for some reason, you should show respect to the people spending time on trying to fix your problems. There must be a reason for if they have not received any answers. Are you sure you have used the right mail address? Did you give them time to respond or expected them to answer immediately over night or over the weekend? Did you actually contacted CNC Drive or just a local distributor?

Of course, none of these is my business, I am just a happy user of CNC Drive's products and NEVER EVER had problems with getting support or answers to my questions.

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Originally Posted by A_Camera

Perhaps all the "tweaking" killed the drivers... Why would there be a need to "tweak" the power supplies?

I fully understand that you have not heard anything from CNC Drive if your contacts with CNC Drive were in the same tone as this thread. CNC Drive is giving excellent support but you have to understand how to communicate politely. Even though you are frustrated because of failures for some reason, you should show respect to the people spending time on trying to fix your problems. There must be a reason for if they have not received any answers. Are you sure you have used the right mail address? Did you give them time to respond or expected them to answer immediately over night or over the weekend? Did you actually contacted CNC Drive or just a local distributor?

Of course, none of these is my business, I am just a happy user of CNC Drive's products and NEVER EVER had problems with getting support or answers to my questions.

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Oh boy, where to start...

Yes, I took every avenue available to me. Believe me, I was very pleasant when dealing with the distributor and much later, the manufacturer. Pleasantries eventually go south, especially if you were working on this problem for as long as I was. The problem I experienced is/was a "run on buzz" from the driver after the servo drive stops moving. All three drives did this. I have read that other people experienced this issue as well. Now, if the machine I bought these for was a homemade jobbie, then I could probably live with the constant noise, but this is a commercial mill that I am retrofitting. If the company had responded saying those noises were normal, I could/would respect that, but they didn't.

I'm happy you guys are using yours successfully. I honestly wish I could have been one of you. But alas, my Larken drives are performing admirably and I am very happy with that. Just a bit poorer.

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Originally Posted by mrogowski

Oh boy, where to start...

Yes, I took every avenue available to me. Believe me, I was very pleasant when dealing with the distributor and much later, the manufacturer. Pleasantries eventually go south, especially if you were working on this problem for as long as I was. The problem I experienced is/was a "run on buzz" from the driver after the servo drive stops moving. All three drives did this. I have read that other people experienced this issue as well. Now, if the machine I bought these for was a homemade jobbie, then I could probably live with the constant noise, but this is a commercial mill that I am retrofitting. If the company had responded saying those noises were normal, I could/would respect that, but they didn't.

I'm happy you guys are using yours successfully. I honestly wish I could have been one of you. But alas, my Larken drives are performing admirably and I am very happy with that. Just a bit poorer.

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Can you post pictures of your set-up. Some of the issues are related to tuning the servos properly. Questions;
1. Are you using shielded cable for power to servos?
2. Are you using shielded cable to encoders?
3. Are any of the HV cables routed with the encoder cables?
4. Are you using correct grounding?
5. The ""run on buzz" is a dead band issue, improper tuning?

Post pictures of your set-up. It may help to diagnose you exact problem.

Hope this helps,

Iron-Man

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Originally Posted by mrogowski

Oh boy, where to start...
The problem I experienced is/was a "run on buzz" from the driver after the servo drive stops moving. All three drives did this. I have read that other people experienced this issue as well. Now, if the machine I bought these for was a homemade jobbie, then I could probably live with the constant noise, but this is a commercial mill that I am retrofitting. If the company had responded saying those noises were normal, I could/would respect that, but they didn't.

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Tuning a servo is not always easy. You have to understand what you doing. I've had some uncertanities for first, but I read after and quickly learnt what the different parameters do and then successfully tuned my servos.
I have no noises or buzzing at all. The servos are very silent. Especially if comparing to my mill which has steppers and screaming loudly. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iron-Man

Can you post pictures of your set-up. Some of the issues are related to tuning the servos properly. Questions;
1. Are you using shielded cable for power to servos?
2. Are you using shielded cable to encoders?
3. Are any of the HV cables routed with the encoder cables?
4. Are you using correct grounding?
5. The ""run on buzz" is a dead band issue, improper tuning?

Post pictures of your set-up. It may help to diagnose you exact problem.

Hope this helps,

Iron-Man

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I appreciate your response friend. I have moved on and deployed the Larken drives, which exhibit no issue(s) whatsoever. But just for reference, I will respond to your questions:

As mentioned, I have a background is electronics that goes back 20+ years. To try and solve this issue I consulted a friend who is an electronics engineer and has worked with PLC's for nearly 35 years. So, there was no lack of knowledge when trying to tackle this problem. He has worked with (and on) CNC equipment that would make anyone drool.

- The mill is a Clausing Kondia; yes all wiring is shielded and run properly. All wiring was checked and verified to be correctly connected and terminated. Twice.
- We spent MANY - I mean TONS of - hours tweaking the software configuration, with direction from the distributor and what little bit of info we received from the manufacturer. We tweaked the linear power supply, thinking it could be an ESR issue. I dropped the supply voltage in half to see if that would get rid of the problem, despite the fact I knew I would lose speed, stability and some torque.

Other people experienced this problem. I have read threads in this forum about this issue. There were no happy endings that I saw.

So, call it venting or whatever, I'm here to notify others that they MAY experience this issue in their setup. And, if they do, it would be in their best interests to not spend the enormous amount of hours I did trying to troubleshoot the problem. Rather, just look at an alternate product.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OlfCNC

Tuning a servo is not always easy. You have to understand what you doing. I've had some uncertanities for first, but I read after and quickly learnt what the different parameters do and then successfully tuned my servos.
I have no noises or buzzing at all. The servos are very silent. Especially if comparing to my mill which has steppers and screaming loudly. :)

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See my other post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrogowski

Oh boy, where to start...

Yes, I took every avenue available to me. Believe me, I was very pleasant when dealing with the distributor and much later, the manufacturer. Pleasantries eventually go south, especially if you were working on this problem for as long as I was. The problem I experienced is/was a "run on buzz" from the driver after the servo drive stops moving. All three drives did this. I have read that other people experienced this issue as well. Now, if the machine I bought these for was a homemade jobbie, then I could probably live with the constant noise, but this is a commercial mill that I am retrofitting. If the company had responded saying those noises were normal, I could/would respect that, but they didn't.

I'm happy you guys are using yours successfully. I honestly wish I could have been one of you. But alas, my Larken drives are performing admirably and I am very happy with that. Just a bit poorer.

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Oh boy indeed...

Your thread seems to have been started only to bash a company you have basically no experience with (thread title: CNCDrive is garbage) when in reality you probably got upset by the distributor not giving any help for you for some reason. So, why not hang out the distributor? My guess is that by the time you were through with "tons of messages with the distributor" you were so p!ssed off that you were not really polite with CNC Drive, so they just ignored you. Also, if you would be more familiar with CNC Drive, you would know that they are actually making high quality products AND large machines, as well as providing excellent after sales services. This is one of their large machine:

forum.cncdrive.com • View topic - New machine build

Now, it may not be up to your standards, but if that is a a "home made jobbie" as you call it, fine, I call that a custom designed and made for industrial use. While the company is not large, it definitely provides some excellent products, not only for hobby use but also industrially. I am pretty sure that the DG4S-16035 servo driver you are so disappointed with (if you really owned those) is also a high quality product and not really sure that it is used in many "home made jobbie", but of course, hobby users buy them as well, just like hobby users can buy anything else also. Many of them have VERY high requirements as well.

Also, the three DG4S-16035 servo drivers you received may have been crap, but I can hardly believe that they are generally a bad product since they would not be sellable if they were crap, because nobody with a sane mind would buy such expensive products if they were crap. I am pretty sure you understand that as well that "home made jobbie" users are not idiots, if the drivers would be as bad as you claim it to be, then I am pretty sure that CNC Drive would pulled back the product a very long time ago. After all, those drivers are not bran new products, they have been around for a few years now.

If your Larken drivers are fine then be happy with them, but regardless what you claim, the probability is very high that the reason why you couldn't get the DG4S-16035 drivers working is your own fault, assuming the drivers were not DOA, in which case you should have got those replaced by the distributor. But when "pleasantries eventually go south" things normally don't end well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by A_Camera

Oh boy indeed...

Your thread seems to have been started only to bash a company you have basically no experience with (thread title: CNCDrive is garbage) when in reality you probably got upset by the distributor not giving any help for you for some reason. So, why not hang out the distributor? My guess is that by the time you were through with "tons of messages with the distributor" you were so p!ssed off that you were not really polite with CNC Drive, so they just ignored you. Also, if you would be more familiar with CNC Drive, you would know that they are actually making high quality products AND large machines, as well as providing excellent after sales services. This is one of their large machine:

forum.cncdrive.com • View topic - New machine build

Now, it may not be up to your standards, but if that is a a "home made jobbie" as you call it, fine, I call that a custom designed and made for industrial use. While the company is not large, it definitely provides some excellent products, not only for hobby use but also industrially. I am pretty sure that the DG4S-16035 servo driver you are so disappointed with (if you really owned those) is also a high quality product and not really sure that it is used in many "home made jobbie", but of course, hobby users buy them as well, just like hobby users can buy anything else also. Many of them have VERY high requirements as well.

Also, the three DG4S-16035 servo drivers you received may have been crap, but I can hardly believe that they are generally a bad product since they would not be sellable if they were crap, because nobody with a sane mind would buy such expensive products if they were crap. I am pretty sure you understand that as well that "home made jobbie" users are not idiots, if the drivers would be as bad as you claim it to be, then I am pretty sure that CNC Drive would pulled back the product a very long time ago. After all, those drivers are not bran new products, they have been around for a few years now.

If your Larken drivers are fine then be happy with them, but regardless what you claim, the probability is very high that the reason why you couldn't get the DG4S-16035 drivers working is your own fault, assuming the drivers were not DOA, in which case you should have got those replaced by the distributor. But when "pleasantries eventually go south" things normally don't end well.

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Makes little difference to me what you think friend. A fair chunk of change and a great deal of time was spent on these units. Now they are sitting here, collecting dust. Let this be a warning to others who may experience this problem - get rid of them and go with something else.

Oh, and I am not afraid of stating who the distributor was I dealt with - CNC4PC. They provided as much support as they could, in my opinion. They even contacted the manufacturer on my behalf, which I appreciate.