On 30 Aug 2016 at 11:03, Robert Laird wrote:
> I have to disagree with your description of 4Q and 2Q controllers. In
> short, 4Q controllers have dynamic braking. 2Q do do not.
Thanks for catching my mistake. I misunderstood (or maybe misremembered)
the term four quadrant. Your link provides a pretty good clarification.
The online manual for the 4QD-200 controller explains that it "[gives]
control of the motor in all four 'quadrants' -- that is, forward and
reverse, acceleration and braking." So I stand (actually, sit) corrected.
I still tend to prefer 4QD over Curtis for the previously stated reasons --
joystick f/r control, regen braking, UK manufacture.
Though I haven't had extensive experience with 4QD support, I've found them
to be more informative and helpful than Curtis.
When I called Curtis with a problem about 20 years ago, their answer was
"buy a new one." They did offer me a modest "trade-in" discount if I
shipped the sick controller back to them.
So I still find 4QD worth looking at. And in fact I own a 4QD that I bought
for my New Idea R36 a while back (ahem), but (ahem) have yet to get round to
installing. (That's how I know something about 4QD support. They answered
my questions and didn't go under the assumption that if I took the
controller apart I'd probably hurt myself AND the controller.)
But that's me. Some of my priorities are a little ... different. ;-) If
price is your primary consideration, and you don't mind doing some hardware
hacking, you probably want a Curtis.
If you have relatively little electronics background (meaning less than
mine, which is: I can follow a schematic and assemble fairly simple stuff,
and sometimes it even works ;-), the Alltrax is probably still your best
bet. It's about as close as you'll get to a drop-in installation, and most
of the challenges are mechanical ones.