I require your help regarding a problem I’m encountering.
Description: I have a driver that looks exactly like your TB6600 ( Product Code : RB-Dfr-727 by [DFRobot). It has nothing that says who the Manufacturer is, p/n, serial number, certifications, nothing. I need to buy some more of these, but I don’t know where they come from. I’ve seen some that look identical in several places and some have some names in the description, but not on the piece of equipment. Is this just a generic driver that is sold under many different names? i need to get some more information on this.
What you most likely have is a Chinese clone. Popular products are often cloned by one or more Chinese companies and sold through various sources. Typically, finding the exact same one again is next to impossible. Some are also illegal. But they ARE cheap and usually work as advertised. Note the word “usually.”
Thank you, and that confirms my feeling. We buy some from Chinese vendors and have a Taiwanese retired EE helping us and while he goes for the cheaper stuff by nature, he also warns us about those exact same things, though this controller is one he got in China. This is going into a medical device, an infiltration pump. Nothing life dependent or critical, but our customer base doesn’t take problems well. So an occasional controller failure of mishap won’t harm any patients, it would kill our sales and reputation. We don’t mind paying more for a more dependable, quality part, we cannot price ourselves out of the market. We are in the Plastic Surgery market, which is small and generally has low volume.
So do you have a recommendation? Obviously, the features of the TBS660, which I think is really just the chip in the controller, that we have now more than handle what we are needing. This isn’t a CNC type device. We just needed the high torque of a stepper to run the peristaltic pump. My concern is dependability. I appreciate your input.
Well, unfortunately, the people who make these hobby boards are in the same boat as you: they can’t price themselves out of the market. Quite often the “genuine” boards are made in the same factory as the ebay knockoffs. That’s often how the factory gets the design! About the only things you can do are deal with reputable dealers who either test all their units or test them yourself. Or, you could spend a lot more and get “professional level” boards. Sorry, but I don’t have a really good answer.
Thanks, Oldguy, of which I am truly an Old Guy. And, not an EE or even a novice. We manufacture and distribute surgical instruments, albeit a small company. I know what you mean about having things made in China. We get tempted because of the costs savings, and we do have a few general things made there, but anything that is proprietary we just can’t. Next trade show we attend, we would find out product everywhere, NDA, patent or no. That was good info, even if yo didn’t think so.
So, I’ll push for just a tad more. I cannot properly or with any real confidence, test these things, other than just running them for a period of time.
Tell me:
What is considered a “Reputable” dealer? I really am in the dark here. My current thought is a company that has a US presence and assets. I know most all of what i buy will be made in China.
And, what would be a “professional level” board? All this driver is doing is running a stepper on a peristaltic pump. It will have variable RPM and a code to ramp up quickly from a low RPM (>150 RPM) up to the setting by the operator of about 300-500 RPM. That’s all. We use a 24v 120w power supply. Simple and clean. No CNC type use, just straight running. Dependability is the overriding factor. We sell to doctors and medical facilities and they are very demanding.
Sorry for the additional questions, but this is probably it, if you have the grace to humor me one more time with you knowledge and opinions.
I’m glad I can help. But do be warned we are getting out of my comfort zone now. I’ve always tried to stay away from the buying parts and selling product parts – I just like to build the stuff!
Having said that, I can offer some tips based on my experience. First, yes, a reputable manufacturer would be one with a good US presence. Probably a larger company, but not necessarily. But one who, like you, values their reputation for providing quality. Essentially stay away from the “hobby” market. I would look for what you need at distributors like Digikey, Mouse,r, Arrow that sell mainly to companies rather than hobbyists. They should have the type of stuff you need. You can find the manufacturer through them and do a bit of research to find out what kind of guarantees they provide. Of course, the more guarantee you get the more you pay Price will be an indicator, but not guarantee, of what you are getting. I would expect you to pay something like five times as much for an equivalent to the board you are using now. I suspect your volume isn’t very high, but you still may be able to work with the manufacturer (especially if they aren’t real big) to get whatever reliability guarantee you need. Of course, more money. But typically those companies that produce specialty stuff like that for production are pretty good if they have been around ten years or more. I would look for that.
Second, a professional level board would be one from one of those manufacturers that does an equivalent function but is designed and built for reliability rather than lowest cost. That usually means things like specifying and using quality components that are derated (using say a 25V capacitor for a 12V supply where a hobby board would use a 16V or even 12 rated cap from a cheap company,) adding heatsinks that might not be needed under “normal” conditions, adding protective circuitry for overloads – thinks like that. Most companies building quality will usually brag about what “extras” they use to justify their prices. Many of the good companies will have application engineers that can help you choose and use the correct products. The cost of that is also built into the price of the product usually.
btw, I’m not an EE either, but I do have some experience with this stuff in commercial products as well as my own. I’m more than happy to help however I can but do realize this isn’t my specialty by any means.
Thank you, much! That helps a lot. I didn’t mean to put you into an uncomfortable situation with my questions. While I would surely take brand and supplier recommendations, I wasn’t expecting them. And, wasn’t looking for you to dis the Robot Shop.
Since the FDA and CE, possibly UL, though I try to say away from them, are involved, I cannot have people changing their products randomly. If we get caught with items in our machines that we haven’t had prior approval for we get shut down. To change a part can be expensive for retesting and time consuming. We wanted to use a different brand of pneumatic switch in another pump of ours. These are the switches hot tubs and garbage disposals use. Brand, mind you, not type. It was gong to cost >$2k just for the CE paperwork. I listed every brand of switch I could locate that time around.
It’s no problem. I just wanted to make sure YOU were aware I wasn’t an expert.
Yeah, I’ve been involved in UL approvals. Don’t get me started! We were making millions of each product and had helped UL actually develop the standards they used and it still was a pain!
I do wish I could recommend some specific device or manufacturers, but I really can’t. If you find some you think might be suitable and would like my opinion I will be happy to provide that. Of course, it’s just my opinion.
Robotshop may actually be able to provide what you need. I don’t know. Worth asking. I have no connection to them. They and other hobby and consumer oriented places are great for what they do, but they mostly don’t cater to the type of stuff you are doing.
I understand your predicament. I commented on a thread just a couple days ago on here. A guy was building some sort of medical therapy device and his safety measures were essentially “it’ll go real slow” and “I hired a patent attorney.” I declined to provide him any assistance. I like being able to sleep at night.
Thanks, Oldguy, and I love that story. Actually there was a day, not long ago, where yo may have been able to get away with that. Our pump is an “Infiltration” pump. It pumps tumescent fluids into fat to facilitate liposuction. Much like infiltrating a turkey before deep frying. The FDA insisted on calling it an “Infusion” pump, which dispenses drugs ant a very precise and sometimes critical rates. Not even closely related. There were several similar pumps already approved, and not as Infusion pumps. I actually had to write my congressman and other high officials trying to get some sense put into these FDA guys. Then we had a heck of a time getting the software approved, which amounted to a small ramp up code and one that would count the volume being dispensed.Actually, it only calculated the amount by RMPs and the volume a peristaltic pump head would push through each rpm, which is one reason we used the peristaltic pump . . . they are very reliable and accurate on each turn. We had a 3rd party submit it for us and it took a lot then. Now with this new pump, we were modifying a lab pump we got in China before, we are going to build it from scratch, we probably will have to do all of the testing over again. We’ll see soon enough. It’s a good product that the docs love and have never had a problem with. We’ll see what our budget allows, but I’ve seen a couple of controllers in the $60 range that I think we could use and one of them is even manufactured here. I like to spend my money local whenever I can. Thanks, And have a good week. Joe
Price will be an indicator, but not guarantee, of what you are getting. I would expect you to pay something like five times as much for an equivalent to the board you are using now. I suspect your volume isn’t very high, but you still may be able to work with the manufacturer (especially if they aren’t real big) to get whatever reliability guarantee you need. Of course, more money. But typically those companies that produce specialty stuff like that for production are pretty good if they have been around ten years or more. I would look for that.