[ckm]

Vince is right. I have no experience with CNC Teknix in Australia, I was specifically referring to Teknic, an American company based in New York who make the SSt-1000 and SSt-1500 series of servo drives, among other things.

Thanks for the clarification and sorry for the confusion.

Chris.

[routerman]

I found the Tecknic drives hard to use as well. They need hard to get connectors and tech support give you the run around. Too many wires to run to each motor.
I agree with everything you said except recommending Gecko servo drives. Their stepper drives are good, but that servo drive is just a toy.
IMO,the Rutex or Viper drives are much better for DC servo.

[ckm]

I don't think I would qualify the Geckos as toys, but there are certainly not in the same league as Yaskawa.

Then again, then are not meant to be, they are supposed to be low-budget alternatives to systems that used to cost min. $1000 per axis.... Even Rutex drives get up there when you price out all the options.

Chris.

[jimhat42]

I will second that, that Teknic is extremely stubborn and just flat out refuses to provide any technical assistance. They do however provide excellent documentation (user manuals on their website) and if you can get their drives that are new or you know are 100% working, they really are good drives, but the service definately taints their reputation.

[Mike Everman]

I am an OEM user of Teknic products, so I do get a better level of support than an end user would (sorry!). I too get calls from folks buying my stages and robots on ebay and want support. If I can't solve it with a quick email of wiring or a part number, it's very tough to provide more and survive, and commissioning a servo system from ground zero can be many phone calls deep.

The Teknic guys are great, but like me, limited by how much time their engineers have for such support. I see Victors prowling around here. He's an app engineer for them, and I'll check to see if his plan is to be regularly supportive here. I think it's important, but alas, they may not. You never know what'll come of it, is my opinion.

I'd also be happy to answer questions on their drives if folks need it. I don't agree that the connectors are hard to find, however, Molex Mini-fits are dime a dozen.

Sorry, I don't have a defense for either of our companies not being able to support a hundred one-time users, vs. a few OEM's ordering thousands of the same thing. Wish I could! I'll talk to them about it and see if there are some documents that could be made available that'll take the sting out of no-one at the other end of the phone. Don't throw out those amps yet! They're the highest performance for the buck you're going to see, but yeah, not exactly plug and play! ;-)

[ckm]

I didn't ask for support, just documentation. The answer was NO.

In my view, that makes them the worst of the worst companies to deal with. Basically, proprietary to the n-th degree and worth staying away from even if you are an OEM. If you go out of business, your customers are screwed and that's never good.

Note that there is a similarly named company in Australia, but they are not related and do provide good docs and end-user support.

Chris.

[Mike Everman]

Point is, if you still want a doc, I can get it for you. I do get it, though. It is a very sophisticated amp and would be difficult to "hunt and peck" through the settings.

Ever used a Delta Tau control? sheesh If you really need to do anything bleeding edge, it's the thing, but try to get support, even as an OEM! Same deal, and any of the 10,000 variables set wrong can de-rail you. There are hundreds of control solutions out there that will go unsupported for ebay buyers.

Again, though, it pains me to hear someone needing something simple and not getting it, in order to use this fine product. For no one in particular but myself, I'll see if I can A: get more docs available online, or B: see if anyone there wants to keep an eye on a forum here. It's an amazing amp and worth some effort.

Just so you know, Bearing Engineers in California private labels these amps (literally just a different color), and maybe they have more on their site, or with a call. Though we'll all have trouble getting phone support from distributors when we did not purchase from them.

[Joe T]

I am an OEM user of Teknic products, so I do get a better level of support than an end user would (sorry!). I too get calls from folks buying my stages and robots on ebay and want support. If I can't solve it with a quick email of wiring or a part number, it's very tough to provide more and survive, and commissioning a servo system from ground zero can be many phone calls deep.

The Teknic guys are great, but like me, limited by how much time their engineers have for such support. I see Victors prowling around here. He's an app engineer for them, and I'll check to see if his plan is to be regularly supportive here. I think it's important, but alas, they may not. You never know what'll come of it, is my opinion.

I'd also be happy to answer questions on their drives if folks need it. I don't agree that the connectors are hard to find, however, Molex Mini-fits are dime a dozen.

Sorry, I don't have a defense for either of our companies not being able to support a hundred one-time users, vs. a few OEM's ordering thousands of the same thing. Wish I could! I'll talk to them about it and see if there are some documents that could be made available that'll take the sting out of no-one at the other end of the phone. Don't throw out those amps yet! They're the highest performance for the buck you're going to see, but yeah, not exactly plug and play! ;-)

Mike,

How many Teknic 'units' do you purchase in a typical year? In other words, what volume justifies becoming an 'OEM?'

Regards,
Joe T.

[Mike Everman]

Why do you need true closed loop? Are you running the amps in torque mode and using the control to close the loop? All they do in step systems is report where they are sending the motor, rather than truly where it is. At least these are actually going to be where you send it with no possibility of cogging.

Not sure I can help with your 3000 issue. Let's tackle it here rather than PM'ing.

Mike