New µ-Drive from AMC

[Al_The_Man]

AMC have anounced a micro-min Brushed or Brushless DC drive http://www.a-m-c.com/new_zdr_digital.htm
Al

[CNCAddict]

I called them up and they didn't have a price ready. They got my information and said they'd call back. Guess they forgot. Oh, the AMC digiflex drives are about $400-$500 and the micro should be cheaper, but I don't think less than $300. So you're looking at $900 just for the drives, I think this is way out of most peoples budget.

[JRoque]

Hello. I had a similar bad experience with AMC support. I purchased two of their Digiflex servo drives and could not get them to work with my CAN interface. Several emails to their support dept were ignored. I called several times on the phone but they didn't help me. I then opened the drives to see if I could figure out how to connect the CAN interface and noticed that all components, chips and the like, were scratched so I couldn't tell what devices they were. A company with those kind of practices won't be on my shopping list.

JR

[CNCAddict]

They actually scratched the chips to hide the make and model???!!! That's a very bad practice. Automotion has very good drivers so you might want to check them out. Plus if you call up they'll try to help you out anyway they can. I think they have a new drive which is around $350. It has step/dir input and electronic gearing or step multiplying. Plus I think it does true AC commutation without the need for hall sensors. This allows a brushless setup which has only 1 more wire than a brushed version.

[JRoque]

Hard to believe eh? Check the pics below of my now paper weight AMC Digiflex.

Regards,
JR

[lucky]

I called Advanced Motion Controls and they freely gave the 1-piece list price of $255 which is pretty unbelievable if you look at the features (way more than Auotomation). I also saw their CD movie recently and for sure would put them on my "shopping list". They have shipped over 1 million axes so they must be doing something right.

As far as support, I have never had an issue. What do you mean they didn't help you when you called? Did you ask to speak to a manager? Never settle for dissatisfaction.

[SimonArthur]

Care to share some more details, lucky? You sound like a rather enthusiastic supporter. Someone more suspicious than I would suggest that your enthusiasm is too good to be true, what with your recently joining the forum and all.

[lucky]

You don't know me so I wouldn't expect you to trust my enthusiasm. That is why I made some suggestions on how to gain one's enthusiasm on one's own.

1. Call 805-3893-1935 and ask for pricing on that product and they should tell you $255
2. Also ask for a movie, it speaks for itself
3. The flyer shows the features of the ZDR and I haven't seen a product that competes with the size, power, and features
4. I just suggested calling a manager if you were dissatisfied, because as a business owner I would appreciate the same courtesy

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by CNCAddict They actually scratched the chips to hide the make and model???!!! That's a very bad practice.

Some years ago I was involved in the electronic servicing field and I used to curse on more than one occasion when part numbers were erased from components. But today I wonder how valid that concern is.
As apart from the attempt by somebody desiring to reverse-engineer the product, how many people have the ability and equipment required to successfully repair SMT constructed equipment?
Al

[sendkeys]

gecko has atleast one pirated copy out there from a old version of there stepper controller i dont want to point to links. Funny thing was it cost more than the Real gecko did hehe.
I couldnt blame them for scratching Some of the chips but shoudnt have to do it to all of them.

[Halfnutz]

So what is the final word on the Digiflex drives? I bought 3 DX15C08C's for 150.00 and they seem like nice drives from the spec's, but I havent started working with them yet. Right now I'm buried into three Omron AC drives that I'm trying to get configured to work with Mach, but soon I want to dig into these Digiflex's and would like to hear how they perform with MachX. Anything I should be aware of? Has anyone worked with this model? With MachX?
Thanks,

[unterhaus]

I'm about to start a project with the microdrives. I think they cost around 300 each. AMC has always scratched off the part numbers on anything they could. It's crazy really, I could probably still reverse engineer the things if I wanted, so you know the Chinese guys who make a living doing that could do it. Still some nice products, even though I wouldn't buy them new for my own projects. It's funny, when I walk through the door at work, the AMC drives look incredibly cheap.