Review Of Servo Motor Sm645-2P Enduro™ Pro

[Bertil]

I have an Adler 167, now in good condition. The clutch motor was really old, too weak (½ hp) and very difficult to control and noisy like a jet engine. After carefully reading about motors in the forum I decided to look for a servo motor. In search of a servo I read a lot of comments in the forum. Really helpful!! In short I found that servo motors are quiet and easy to control but weak at start up unless you want to pay a lot of money.

Next step was to search the web for motors and there was one that caught my attention, Enduro. The only motor with decent documentation available to download and review! http://www.endurosaves.com/download-PDFs.php

One passage in the manual for SM645-2P stood out: “provides a high starting torque even at low speed or from a complete stop.”. This was the deciding factor for me since I am many times sewing thick naturally cured leather and I need to go slow. This motor comes with needle positioning system which would be nice to have. Ordered from Universal Sewing Supply https://www.universalsewing.com.

The first thing that strikes you is the weight (4,5 kg) compared to my old clutch motor (22 kg). Can this motor really match the old? Well let´s see.

First problem was to fit the motor to the table. It would really be nice to have a foot print in order to drill the holes. Why not put it as another pdf on the web? Well two new holes drilled from the underside, one old was perfect to use. Put on a 50mm pulley and fitted the motor and found that the belt was too long. 2nd problem a new belt 2 inches shorter and now the test! The on/off buttons are really good quality and gives you a good feeling, sturdy and distinct.

OK here we go; ON. Very low noise, almost nothing and when not running nothing! Setting up the motor control was a little bit cumbersome but worked out. Why can not manufacturers put nice old fashion rotary dials instead of these digital push button systems? I guess it would be more expensive but I would be more than happy to pay a little bit extra. Anyway you can set up; running direction, starting speed (I have set to 7, 9 is slowest) and max speed (set to 6 i.e. 600 rpm & with the pulley 50/100mm means 300 stitches per minute max). When you wind the bobbin it takes some time unless you change the top speed. This is a minor problem and I don´t mind to wait and relax a little bit.

The needle positioning system has to be fitted to the central screw on the hand wheel. Sorry the supplied screw does not fit. My machine is too old and a new screw I have been unable to find.

The machine can be set up to run at really low speed, even too low for me.

Using the hand wheel is really easy. You don´t have to depress the pedal at all. Then when running, the control is excellent. You can easily sew stitch by stitch, even stop wherever you want. There seems to be almost no moment of inertia so when you release the pedal the machine stops immediately! Nice! How about the torque? Well I have now been sewing for a month and it easily goes through anything I have been feeding the machine, up to 6 glued layers of serraje (its like nubuck), 7-9 mm thick. Easy, even stitch by stitch. The other day I had to sew two layers of naturally cured belt leather, 3,5 mm thick each. No problem at all. Curiosity took over. Three layers of old vegetal leather, crazily hard and in total 11 mm! Did not think on that the machine does not have this capacity. Sorry old buddy! The needle Schmetz 140/22 134-35 LR and thread nylon 10. Did it work? Ooohhh YES! Like a hot knife in butter, stitch by stitch. Really impressive! Does this have to do with the neodym magnets? I have no idea but surely it works beyond my expectations. I recommend this motor. If you need even more torque there are 1 kW motors.

[Bertil]

Got some feedback and need to add some complementary information and correction:

The maximum speed can be set in increments of 100 rpm starting with 100 rpm up to 4500 rpm. This means in my case the sewing machine would turn from 50 up to 2250 stitches per minute.

Regarding the biggest Enduro it is not rated at 1 kW but rather 1.4 kW! I just wonder will it warp the table or not (just kidding).

[Rmplstlskn]

Good review! I have the Enduro Pro on my Consew 206RB-2 for about 2 years now... I am wondering if they fixed the optical sensor speed control on these Enduro servo motors yet? I did the YouTube hack on mine (making a gradient blade to improve startup speed increase), which helped dramatically with the start being not so abrupt, so I would hope that surely by now, with so many having done this hack, that they would have improved this blade part or gave an option....

So do find on yours the start is abrupt, going from nothing to a faster speed withy only a small move of the pedal?

As for power, I sew heavy nylon webbing, and I have kicked the Enduro Pro motor into overload a few times (where the motor stops and you have to reset pedal and start again, this time with some hand wheel help). But all in all, a world of difference between the old clutch motor. Makes my Consew 206RB-2 a dream to use..

I ask because I need a new servo motor for a Singer 241-3 I just picked up to do tape that has a clutch motor... I would really like to find a servo motor that I don't need to play around with gradient blades again....

Rmpl

[Uwe]

I got the same Enduro Pro SM645-2P motor for my Paff 335, also from Universal Sewing. I also modified the optical blade to get a better gradual throttle response and I rather like the motor. However, I could not get the needle positioning to work properly. I went over the setup procedure several times thinking I did something wrong, but the needle would always take two steps before stopping in the down position instead of stopping at the down position immediately following my letting go of the pedal. Heeling the pedal advanced the needle in the correct up position. After fussing with it for a while unsuccessfully, I called Universal Sewing and they connected me to an Enduro tech in under a minute (yay!) He basically said "Yeah it's not working, we know, sorry about that. The 110V versions over-rotate, the 220V version works properly." For a resolution I asked to refund the difference between the NP version and the regular version ($30), which he readily agreed to and Universal Sewing posted a refund.

I just got the more powerful 220V version of the Enduro Motor (SM10502PF) for my Adler 205 and I can confirm that the needle positioning system works properly on that motor. Alas, I found I don't really like using the NP system since I sew very slow and I prefer the motor just stop instantly when I let go of the pedal.

I now have two needle position sensors I'm not using, just in case any body is interested :-)

[Rmplstlskn]

I have been trying to figure out the differences between the Pro and the Elite... It looks to primarily be 2.8 to 3.7 foot pounds in torque, and a faster speed (not a concern of mine).... They both are about the same in price...

Thanks for the 110v heads up on the positioner. I can easily run 220v to my machine positions, so I think I will do that and get the 220v motor. I plan on getting the 50mm pulley for it as well.

Shame the optical sensor blade switch is still an issue, using a solid, opaque blade rather than a graduated translucent blade... Seems like such an easy change for the manufacturer.

Rmpl

[Bertil]

As far as I know the difference is that the Elite are the more powerful ones, but please make a call to Universal Sewing Supply to make sure: 314-862-0800 (7 -5 Mon-Fri CST). Check with them re the start up speed. I believe that their 2nd generation motors have the new blade.

I have received some comments re the push button systems vs. rotary dials. All are in favor of rotary dials, no surprise there! But please beware there are servos with brushes and then you don't get the start up torque! If you also are looking for energy saves the more you use a brush motor the more it will consume. Already when new you save more on a brush less motor.

[ifixpix]

Has anyone tried this hack, using a servo? He is implementing it on a clutch motor. I tried it on my clutch motor and it seemed to help. I have since installed a servo and much better speed control but still a bit of a jump from slow to medium speed. I imagine that this would work on a servo but since the speed controller "arm" is facing toward the user, instead of the leftside of the machine, the exetension arm would have to be fairly short. Too bad there is not a "precision" foot pedal available.

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by ifixpix

[brmax]

Its a great concept. In reading through the above post, one could consider another hack if ya want to call it that. I actually think it should have been a first choice for the manufactures addressing the issue, from the begining. But to consider, there are few factory operators needing slow starts.

 No-matter its a pita but a relatively easy mod! If you look into it more and make your decision. First a small pulley option with them servos is also a requirement. This mod and small pulley are an additional help feature, but nothing comparing to a reducer pulley setup which would be a great investment for leather work.

 

Good day

Floyd

[dikman]

As Floyd suggests, if the servo isn't slow enough then a smaller (2") pulley on the motor and, if necessary, a speed reducer should do it. I presume you've played around with the settings? Often they can be slowed but at the expense of top speed.

[Northmount]

And they lose torque at low speeds, thus the need for speed reducer pulleys unless you are only dealing with thin soft leather.

Tom