Problem- Support from Gecko?

[AdyAstley]

I am a British Electrical Engineer and many years ago I was involved in machinery designs and build for wire winding industries using various PLC's, MMI and Drives up to 800hp. I moved to Costa Rica about 6 years ago and struggled to find work with my lack of Spanish and different systems and market. A friend asked if I would help him with a machine he bought that was a CNC with broken dyna controls and bandit tool changer. There was no support local or even using the Internet and after many weeks of trying, reading and this website I decided to take the plunge with his two nicer machines, one a stepper Bridgeport and the other a really nice Japonese DC motored machine with the tool changer. I invested in Gecko drives, got 6 x stepper 201's as there was two BP machines collecting rust and 3 x 320's. I had nothing else to do as my working visas were complicated even though married 10 years and 3 kids. Anyhow I had a nice start getting the first machine moving from my laptop and then the DC one shortly after but as this country is a little unstable with power out I managed to blow the 201's with a e-stop and re-energize in a short period. I explained in full detail how my circuit was and Gecko nicely offered my money back and having little knowledge of these items and had no income as such, SO I sort of stopped playing with the Steppers but Gecko did tell me I had made a massive mistake putting an e-stop on the supply (they now tell you not to do this) and they no longer wanted to deal with me. I was so embarrased I could not tell my friend and actually gave him back the money he had invested and bought one of his rusty BP machines for $400. Needless to say I still had the servos working but my problem was that this machine is hard to tune up as the lids are not the easiest to lift off to set up with a scope but hey slowly and carefully I got this to work but each time I tried cutting wood or metal one of the drives would fail and ruin the work. I identified this as MY hardest problem, as I know too little about the electronics stuff and the components for the circuits shown in some posts were impossible to find here or no one would ship just a small amount. Anyhow I plodded on and recruited a helper with the problem and he made a cicuit that to me looked great and worked in tests on the block board. I coupled the circuit (eventually after 3 years after starting) and the fault lights on all 3 drives just would not go out and worse still the drives started jittering all over. I decided to go back to my rusty machine in my weekends as now I had a job, I bought 3 x vampire drives and put them on my rusted machine that I just cleaned up with WD40 and brillo. I actually managed to make a nice CNC with this combo of "What not to do with steppers" and Mach 3 (Best $150 ever). I was cutting anything and everything with my 30 year old Bridgeport and I gave it back to my friend working so he could get used to it once I got his DC machine working. I thought after 4 years I would again ask for help on the DC machine that had me stumped. Gecko said send them by post for checking so I did (I thought they would tell me to sling my hook but they had grown), they told me the drives were fine (I must be an idiot?) I again was embarrased about my lack of knowledge and bought a spare G320 as this machine was just steps away from working. I replaced all the toolchange with PLC and relays so that was easy enough and just needed this 3 drive combo working (5 years had past). I got the drives back and put the homemade circuit for tying the 3 drives together in the bin. I got another more experienced electronics guy and he said this is a logic ERR/RES circuit and that is why my current driven circuit gave problems. I trusted him and we made a simple AND circuit to drive a relay that cuts the limits circuit and thus stops all drives. We had the drives all linked and working, the reset after power up worked (there was a little delay of say 3 seconds before all 3 drives turned off the fault light) BUT all seemed to work as expected. After moving all axis my friend said "lets simulate a drive fault" SO I unplugged a drive to simulate a fault. POP two of the 3 drives were fried. MY FAULT of course! I wrote to Gecko telling them what had happened, I did not want a refund (R&D for free) and they now refuse to even sell me a drive so I can complete what I started. In fact I have had to put CHINA drives in a USA machine with steppers. Needless to say there is no way I would like to use CHINA drives as opposed to Gecko but I have no choice. I unfortunately cannot find a DC servo drive that works with my power supply 68VDC at a cost I can afford and I am without support. If anyone makes a link for more than one drive for the ERR/RES I strongly suggest they start selling it on e-bay. If anyone has a working G320 drive for sale I want it. If anyone knows any drive that might suit my needs I am interested.

Please understand that I have learnt a heck of a lot in these years and am sure that Gecko make the best Retrofit CNC drives, I am not so sure they are interested in customer feedback, probably I should have refused the refund some 5 years ago, probably should have given up helping my friend, wish people would even with the bad news.

Take on board all info, we need it. There is no profit in my 5 years of seeing CNC machines, just lessons learnt and a wanting to learn. It is cool to see a machine that I restored cut something that I personally could not do, such as a carved leaf made of wood. In fact I have spent all my savings on this hobby much to my wife's dissapointment..........FAILURE - always human error - Not always mine.

I hope I can finish what I started and I hope Gecko can see the details however minute.

Adrian

[TOTALLYRC]

There are lots of other vendors that sell gecko drives including ebay, you don't have to buy directly from gecko.
That being said, I have been in situations where you have to cut your losses and not sell to a customer who is having problems with many items you sell him.
It was a very hard choice to make and I am sure that Gecko did not make it lightly.
I am suprised however that after all the problems that you had at the beginning, and that you have been a member here for almost 2 years, that you didn't read more about Gecko drives here on the zone and in the owners manual.

Mike

[ger21]

http://kelinginc.net/ServoMotorDriver.html

[AdyAstley]

I really apreciate your response guys. I was at a stump - I tried e-bay but for the last 2 weeks nothing had come up. Like I say the problem is getting the 3 axis to stop if one faults and the lids are a poor design that should be addressed. I never knew there was other choices when I started but when you have 2 off 3 drives that work (or at least I think they do) I am a little more interested in stopping them when they fault. I am also glad that there is more choice than the CHINA option as the information is poor due to the lack of understanding English I guess. If anyone has managed to tie the 3 drives together I would be really greatful. Thanks for the great re-start, I have been reading the forums on and off for over 5 years but joined again 2 years ago when I got my 203 drives. You can't read all the threads and as there are many it can be easy to miss a little snippet.

Kind regards,

[Mariss Freimanis]

Originally Posted by TOTALLYRC That being said, I have been in situations where you have to cut your losses and not sell to a customer who is having problems with many items you sell him. It was a very hard choice to make and I am sure that Gecko did not make it lightly. Mike

Geckodrive has been in business for 10 years now. In those 10 years our "do not sell to" list has accumulated exactly 5 entries.

Mariss

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by Mariss Freimanis Geckodrive has been in business for 10 years now. In those 10 years our "do not sell to" list has accumulated exactly 5 entries. Mariss

So an extremely hard choice then?

Having seen how far you go to help customers, it must be one of the most difficult things you do to have to tell a customer to go somewhere else.

Mike