Fake Omron encoders - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 08:07:06 pm
content: Hi,there are quite cheap 2000P/R rotary encoders on eBay. They are "Omron E6B2-CWZ6C", and I'm pretty sure they're fake. How usable are they, has anybody tried them?

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 08:23:39 pm
content: If you look for industrial grade and low price encoders, we usually go for Autonics encoders.Never used theses Omrons...

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 08:38:27 pm
content: Thank you. I'm looking for something that I could use for spindle sync on a small hobby lathe. Anything that works and does not fall apart would be fine. These Omrons(?) are min. 3x cheaper as Autonics, and I'd like to know what I could get at this price.

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 08:51:24 pm
content: If its for home use, you can grab any used gear, the worst you may need to handle is a noisy bearing...Ballufs, Omrons, Autonics, Sicks, Festos envetually are all good brands you can rely.As for this Omron, I can't say if they are fake, can be new old stock perhaps... for the price,I'd give a try

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 09:06:50 pm
content: They are NIB and located in China...

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 09:26:50 pm
content: Well, can't say much more...Don't you have any scrapyard to find something useful and very cheap?

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 10:23:39 pm
content: Unfortunately, no... That's why I'm trying to use suspicious stuff.BTW, fake Telemecanique (Schneider Electric) pushbuttons are pretty usable. Looks like an exact copy. I disassembled one and there are no differences inside. The only way to distinguish is that the marking is poorly printed.

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2015, 10:35:40 pm
content: Well I can see you are under process control & industrial automation, right?Here in Brazil this old Telemecanique XB4 line now is sold through Metaltex, they rebrand all kind of stuffs and the button is just great quality, we still use a lot! Its 15% of the cost of the new XB4 metal line...So I believe they've sold the old tooling and projects to some unknown chinese company or similar...Just like DELTA PLCs, have you noticed that they are ridiculously similar to Mitsubishi FX-2N series (same for servos)? I believe they're licensed.

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 07:37:05 am
content: Yes, could be so. I used to buy XB5 series on Aliexpress. They have poorly printed Telemecanique logo but are by other means indistinguishable from the originals. More than suitable for hobby use.I also bought a fake Mitutoyo dial indicator by mistake (thought it was original). This is equivalent to the usual low-cost crap.

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 09:28:06 am
content: Quote from: Gall on August 20, 2015, 08:07:06 pmI have 4 brand new 1000 P/R Omron E6B2-CWZ6C in original boxes and they are very nice but they output NPN and all of my counters need rising edge except for a Redlion counter which is switchable so for these encoders I have to run through transistors to get a PNP output, I didn't get them from China and am pretty confident they are genuine, I was building a DRO for the lathe and never got back to it and with all the time plus money I spent on counters and encoders I should have just bought another Easson DRO as I did for the milling machine.The E6B2-CWZ5B are PNP output but need 12 to 24 volt and this is what I should have bought but the price was to good at the time at $60 AUD each for the NPN which are 5 to 24 volt.Muttley

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 01:02:28 pm
content: Cant you just use a resistor pull up?

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 01:25:50 pm
content: I probably could have but as these encoders were at RS Components and Farnell for around $700 each so I didn't want to risk damaging the outputs so two transistors and a couple of diodes for each encoder worked fine also the outputs are very low, I drew up an inverting pcb but then got side tracked and also got hold of some Baumer PNP encoders so never used the Omrons.

author: rvalente
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 01:29:33 pm
content: Got it...Japanese have this inverted logic in mind, the always switch ground instead of Vcc, its of course better for the electronics point of view, but any short to ground (speccialy if the reference for the machine is tied to earth) may drive the machine nuts.I prefer the european/american standard to use switched VCC, its safer in my point of view.Well, for cheap encoders, stick to autonics

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 01:37:54 pm
content: You can order either PNP, NPN, Voltage Output, Grey Code the list goes on and on, I have a really nice big TR absolute encoder but I cant read the output signal with any gear or counters that I have, it outputs SSI, CANbus or something.

author: Dubbie
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 25, 2015, 01:52:20 am
content: I've bought those ebay omron encoders. They seem to work just fine and nothing about them seemed fake compared to some ones that I know for sure are genuine.