Hi all. A month or so ago, I posted a topic in the support category that related to a problem I was having with a knock-off single drive board. I got great help, and it did work to some extent, but, to quote from my own post:
… the single-axis clone … turns out that it’s useless as it has no brake resistor circuitry. That makes it completely unfit for use as a CNC spindle motor drive; it just alarms as soon as you reduce the speed. So let this be a warning to others. I am trying to get my money back under the “false description” clause, but not very hopeful.
I still stand by that - the brake resistor is essential in many applications. I was not optimistic, but I raised a dispute with AliExpress, and went around with them for a long time. I made two claims: that the product was defective/useless, and that it was a counterfeit. AliExpress rejected both claims initially, but agreed it was a counterfeit when I pointed them to the ODrive shop site, with a picture of the ODrive logo that had been copied onto the clone. The seller was tenacious and claimed I misunderstood their product, though I don’t see how the description “single axis ODrive” can be misunderstood. In any event, I got my money back, which was quite a surprise but welcome.
The moral I suppose looks obvious. However, I do think it’s worth mentioning that the clone was not cheap; in fact the dual axis knock-offs are often priced MUCH higher than directly from ODrive! And of course it takes forever to get the product. Not sure what they are thinking. Certainly, I would never have considered buying a clone priced like that, except that I needed the smaller size of the single axis drive. Hopefully, a single axis genuine ODrive will appear soon? In any event, don’t buy a single axis clone unless it has the AUX terminals for the brake resistor.
