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Gerald_D
Sat 21 October 2006, 00:00
Centent was the forerunner to Gecko (same designer). Apparently those Centents CN0142 / CN1043 are still on the market. What do you guys know about them?
Gerald_D
Sun 24 December 2006, 00:05
www.centent.com (http://www.centent.com) is still quite active. The CN0165 (http://www.centent.com/cn0165.htm) is the current microstep stepper drive. The literature (http://www.centent.com/_private/cn0165.pdf) on this drive is very informative to those of us trying to learn about drives and steppers in general.

(Centent was run by the father of Mariss. The father passed away and his share went to another son (Leonid?) who now runs Centent. Mariss left and started the competing Gecko company based on his earlier work in the family Centent)
Kim Mortensen
Mon 29 January 2007, 17:10
Gerald....

Do you have any pricing on the Centent Drives... And are they just as good as the Gecko's perhaps even better..????
Gerald_D
Mon 29 January 2007, 22:43
Havn't got the faintest idea. Started the thread to see if there was anyone else with real experience that could tell us more.
Kim Mortensen
Mon 29 January 2007, 23:36
I actually like the centent Drives, they are also very small, but it seems lige the 165 can pull a lot more current pr. phase, up to 20 Amps... That's alot. Then one is secured for bigger builds in the future...
Gerald_D
Mon 29 January 2007, 23:56
Surely you mean 10 Amps, not 20?
Kim Mortensen
Tue 30 January 2007, 00:04
Ohh sorry, I read that it could take motors that drew 20 Amps pr. fase... My bad... hehe, but still a nice piece of equipment.. I'm hoping to get some response from centent sometime later today...
Gerald_D
Tue 30 January 2007, 00:16
Sure, it will take a 20Amp motor....but it will only give the motor 10Amps or less http://www.mechmate.com/Forum/clipart/happy.gif

(Actually, there is nothing wrong with driving a motor at less that its rating. I do it with the spindle motor at home where I only have a 2.2kW drive feeding a 3.5kW spindle. It would have been silly to buy a 2.2kW spindle for 10% less cost and then be limited where I can use it.)
Kim Mortensen
Tue 30 January 2007, 12:36
OK, no I have recieved an Email back from Centent. not something I'm going to buy. Very very expensive. Geckos is the obvious choise so far.

This is the Email I got from Centent.

The 1-3 piece price for the CN0165 Microstep Drive is $550 each, and the 4-9 piece price is $525 USD apiece. Our terms are paid in advance FOB Santa Ana, CA, USA. We accept US funds checks, Visa/MasterCard credit cards, or you can wire the remittance if you prefer. Bank routing information is available upon request should you choose to wire your payment.

The total for four units would come to $2100 USD + shipping to Denmark. Federal Express quotes us approximately $127.64 USD for their 2-business day service to ship the 3 kg. package to Copenhagen, so that the total including shipping would approximate $2227.64 USD.
Gerald_D
Tue 30 January 2007, 12:45
Ouch!
Kim Mortensen
Tue 30 January 2007, 14:56
Yeah Ouch....

Definetly not something I'm going to invest in... That's almost the entire pricing of my Mechmate when it's done... So Geckos, here I come...*GGGGGG*
IN-WondeR
Wed 19 December 2007, 15:28
I might have 4 Centent CNO162 for sale.
They have been tested and are working very fine...
But they will only be sold if I get a good price for them.
They are used, but in very good condition.
Retail price is $500 pr. unit. I however have bought them a little cheaper...

Highest bid over: $75 pr unit.
Richards
Thu 20 December 2007, 11:12
Kim,

Normally I wouldn't respond to a post where something is being offered for sale; however, as an avid user of Gecko products and as someone who has used a lot of other stepper motor drivers for more than twenty-five years, I have to caution anyone who buys something other that Gecko drives to read and understand exactly what you're buying. Mariss, who designs the Gecko stepper drives, has not lived in a vacuum since starting his own company. I've found that his products are not only adequate, but superior to the products being offered by other companies.

I don't know whether the CN0162 is comparable to the G201, the G202, or the G203, but I would imagine, from the reading that I've done, that it is more like the G201. That is an 'almost' obsolete model in the Gecko line. Personally, I favor the G203v for my own uses and the G202 for those applications where the COMMON signal is +5VDC.