Are needle positioners for brushless servo motor drives all the same

[beefy]

I've bought a couple of these cheapy Chinese brushless servo drives for my industrial machines.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/145766877894

They both work (at least for now LOL) and coupled with the 4 pulley reduction systems I've fitted, make life absolute heaven.

However, the instructions are the typical useless "Chinglish" where you have to attempt to work out what you are being told.

Nothing happens when I attempt to check the needle positioner setting, so my questions are:

1). Is it typical that without a needle positioner connected, you cannot enter the setting for needle positioning.

2). I cannot find a needle positioner in the seller Ebay store, so will any needle positioner that's meant for a brushless servo drive work.

[toxo]

6 hours ago, beefy said:

I've bought a couple of these cheapy Chinese brushless servo drives for my industrial machines.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/145766877894

They both work (at least for now LOL) and coupled with the 4 pulley reduction systems I've fitted, make life absolute heaven.

However, the instructions are the typical useless "Chinglish" where you have to attempt to work out what you are being told.

Nothing happens when I attempt to check the needle positioner setting, so my questions are:

1). Is it typical that without a needle positioner connected, you cannot enter the setting for needle positioning.

2). I cannot find a needle positioner in the seller Ebay store, so will any needle positioner that's meant for a brushless servo drive work.

On my previous machines I slowed it down by changing the size of the handwheel and the motor pulleys and the N/P worked fine. The new machine came with a speed reducer and the N/P doesn't work as it should. However, I've read somewhere that the N/P can be adjusted on the servo motor. I've tried this briefly with very limited success but I haven't tried it to death and it goes slow enough for me to keep putting it off. One day.....

[friquant]

8 hours ago, beefy said:

Nothing happens when I attempt to check the needle positioner setting, so my questions are:

1). Is it typical that without a needle positioner connected, you cannot enter the setting for needle positioning.

No, this is not typical from the 3-4 models I've used. Are you able to view the other settings? Can you upload the user manual that came with the motors?

Is there a 4-pin connector on the back of the controller to accept a needle positioner?

 

[friquant]

8 hours ago, beefy said:

2). I cannot find a needle positioner in the seller Ebay store, so will any needle positioner that's meant for a brushless servo drive work.

I'm not sure. I've seen two different sized 4-pin connectors used for needle positioners. Have not tried mixing and matching.

[fibersport]

If they all have the same connector, then I would say they are probably interchangeable.  However, this is also similar to saying are all digital servo motors the same.  While the positioner is really nothing more than a switch to mark where the needle is in the up and down position, there is the issue of quality - much like servo motors.  I recently purchased a Kinedyne motor and positioner, the positioner when compare to a less expensive model actually feels better.  When opened up to dial it in for my machine, it's obvious the quality is much better.  I should also say that there are separate dials that are adjusted for the needle positions and an optical sensor for those wheels, whereas with the cheaper model, you rotate the hub that connects to the handwheel to dial in the needle positions.  Just my experience with a couple of them .....