[Dman65]

I was wondering if anyone knew if there was any site that had actual reviews of drivers that have objective information on them.

If not, I was wondering if there would be any interest in communally creating something like that. If we could determine what criteria to test and then make a generally test bed setup and measure how each driver does with the same motor and baseline voltage level and then how it does on the maximum voltage level for the test bed motor.

[simpson36]

How about this for starters:

http://www.thecubestudio.com/ServoDriveReview.htm

[Dman65]

Thanks for the link!

Wow! Are there any controllers actually worth buying?

[adbradley]

Than you for the in depth review, but i agree, are there any of these worth spending the money on??

Adam

[simpson36]

The issues with these products for the most part are solvable with firmware updates, improved software and documentation and perhaps some changes in marketng strategy.

All we users can do is provide feedback, it is up to the vendors how they use that information. But for sure they won't do anything if they don't know what people want, so posting comments is very important.

[Larken]

(Viper drive ) saying that my questions were “smart ass” and that I was creating a “pissing contest”. I found his behavior unprofessional, and ultimately I chose to return the drive for a refund, which he issued promptly on receipt of the returned product.

I answered more than 16 emails, many where you argued about a 5volt line with a 2K pullup resistor "Blowing your encoder" which turned out to be false and your questions were basically condecending and hard to deal with. You refused to talk on the phone where i could have helped you much more.

and ultimately I chose to return the drive for a refund,

Sorry, but It was me who offered to refund the money after you started getting rude !


I don't think selling someone a servo drive entitles them to treat people like a doormat. In the end, i refunded all your money and said enough is enough.

Larry kenny

[simpson36]

Larry,

When I returned the product, our conversations were concluded.

Your post contains no facts, no answers, and does not address the review points. You are just continuing your whining and I'm not interested in participating in an emotional debate on a public forum.

This is the entire e-mail stream between us. Hopefully this removes your incentive to provide further 'interpretations'. Anyone interested can read it and draw their own conclusion. I am finished with it.

http://www.thecubestudio.com/LarkenEmailString.htm

[Larken]

This is the entire e-mail stream between us. Hopefully this removes your incentive to provide further 'interpretations'. Anyone interested can read it and draw their own conclusion. I am finished with it.
http://www.thecubestudio.com/LarkenEmailString.htm

Yes, please leave it up for others to read. I'm sure most people would see what I was up against

BTW, The new Viper 95 manual has been up for weeks, the website has been updated. The Viper 95 replaces the Viper 75 ( Now $148). And at least 1 firmware update has been released, So please add these facts to your Drive comparison web page.

The website states I offer a 60 Day money back satisfaction Guarantee (which you are the only customer that I have needed to use this on)

BTW, Check the Viper Forum on this website and see how many customers you can find that are unhappy with my support. None !! (that I know of) I try my best to help the customer make every installation successful.

Larry K

[simpson36]

Larry,

I have already to updated the review with the new information that you provided previously in private messages.

When I have some time, I will peruse your site again based on your last post here and update any factual information in the review that is no longer current.

Recognise that I do this in fairness to all vendors, but it is not my responsibility to go back and check if changes or improvments have been made in all of these products. If a vendor informs me of a change then I do take the time to add the updates, with appropriate disclaimers if I cannot verify the information.

[bsharp]

I have had good luck with "Copley Accelus" Drives. I have used several of them in various applications. They are around twice the price of the Hobby oriented drives but they are about bullet proof. With short circuit protection, over and under bus current, voltage protection and thermal shutdown. They do electronic gearing, auto phasing and support analog, pwm and step direction inputs. They also support brushed and brush less DC motors. The configuration software has built in scopes so you can graphically fine tune each part of the PID Loop on the fly and allows you to save the drive's flash rom configuration to your hard drive for back up. They also have user configurable inputs and outputs that can be set as active hi or low dependent on what your requirement is. And they can be reset with out powering down or you can set them to require a power down to reset. When I am working on a project I don't want to have to design the machine around the drive. I know they are not as cheap but the few extra dollars is better than a fist full of hair.

[Jay C]

I read the exchange. I can imagine how frustrated you were at the time as it was obvious in your "tone". I thought Larry did a good job of keeping his cool. At the same time, I would hate to be in the same position as you. Poor/missing documentation, and just plain assumptions on Larry's part would have been frustrating. Add to that a burned up encoder and yeah I can certainly empathize.

On a strictly technical level, I find t hard to see how a current limited 5V connected to A and/or B on the encoder would have fried it. Did you try to scope the pins as you rotated the encoderd to see if there were missing pulses?

Thanks for your through reviews.

Jay

[simpson36]

It was US digital's tech support that said the encoder was fried. The encoder was not 'dead' it just read wrong . . WAY wrong, so it was putting out a signal, but I don't know how one could tell with a scope that the data was corrupted somewhere in the loop.

Ultimately, the encoder turned out to be OK, it was the Viper that was causing the problem. Larry eventually claimed to have found a solution . . but he wouldn't say what it was . . he just kept saying 'it will in the next manual'.

Well, that's a pretty infuriating answer when you are dead in the water and there is no ETA on the 'next' manual.

I connected the encoder to a Rutex drive and it was working fine! So I went searching on the net and found info on termination of encoder cables and was able to figure out the solution for myself and get it working.

Larken never did provide the solution to me, although it now appears in the manual for the Viper and involves the customer adding termination resistors to the Viper interface.

I am running all CNCdrive servo drives now and having no problems.

[Jay C]

It was US digital's tech support that said the encoder was fried. The encoder was not 'dead' it just read wrong . . WAY wrong, so it was putting out a signal, but I don't know how one could tell with a scope that the data was corrupted somewhere in the loop.

Yeah, that was the point. To see if the pulse stream on A and B were 5V square waves in quadrature. If so, then you could eliminate the encoder as being bad.

Glad to see you got it all worked out though.

Jay

[Larken]

This link on Machsupport continues the review.
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/ind...33.0/wap2.html