M-1 Motor jittering and not rotating

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Apparently, My M-1 is not working properly, who do i send it to

 

thanks

[JimBartell]

The M-One motor can only be serviced by the manufacturer:

Palomar Engineering, Inc.
Attn: Don Wetzel
439 Grand Drive, Suite 191
Bigfork, MT 59911
USA
tel; 406-837-1370
e-mail: don@loonworks.com

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Thanks Jim

[Martin Stacey]

Peter Hoare was thinking about offering a service to repair M-One's if you have no luck with Palomar Rob.

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Thanks Martjn

[Peter Hoare]

I have one motor coming to me now. Im going to carefully have a look and decide if I can do pot replacement.

 

Pete.

[Peter Hoare]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have received the first M-One and have disassembled it, and im pleased to say that the potentiometer poses us no problems to replace. The part is readily available and the modifications can be done by us very easily.

 

The M-One is very well designed, hats off to Don, its well thought out.

 

 

Pete.

 

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Thanks Peter,

I just sent mine out to Don, but its great to know we have someone else that can work on these

[Peter Hoare]

Obviously I won't be able to help if there is damage to the gears or any of the housing, as those are custom parts, but as for changing the pot, it looks like I will be able to do this.

 

Pete.

[Peter Hoare]

Hi Everyone,

 

A quick update on the M-One repair.

 

I got hold of replacement potentiometers, but they needed significant modification. A few hours on the lathe with a local master manual machinist, and we now have a special jig to hold the potentiometers to modify them. I have now got a small supply of modified potentiometers ready to go into M-One motor units.

 

There is also a shaft seal inside the motor that is used as a kind of clutch to turn the pot shaft. On the motor I have here, this seal is pretty ragged and tatty, so I have got onto my seal people and I have new ones coming over now so we can replace these as well.

 

I have yet to finish the motor up and test it, but it looks to me like everything will work fine, so those of you with M-Ones with knackered potentiometers, I think I can help you out.

 

Pete.

 

[Peter Hoare]

Hi Everyone -

 

Good news! I have completed the pot replacement on the first motor, and I have tested it with a bartec unit and its perfect! I have a stock of pre modified pots, so if your M-One needs a pot replacment, I can turn it around in a few days.

 

 

 

Pete.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

thx for picking up the slack!

[Evrim KAYA]

Hello Guys and Gals,

 

I am the proud owner of the first M-one motor serviced by Peter Hoare. I just received the motor back and I have to say it seems as good as new (field test pending).

 

Turnaround time was something like 2 weeks but I think it will be much shorter for the next ones as he already has the experience from my motor as well as ready-to-go pots.

 

Thanks to Peter for giving another life to my old but trusted motor. As the manufacturer is defacto out of the business, we needed desperately someone who can service M-ones.

 

Also,

 

While waiting for the motor to get back, I sent my BFD to Jim Bartell for a check-up/tune-up in order to use the down time efficiently. His customer service was, as always, excellent. He replaced some missing screws re-calibrated the remote, replaced the gimbal controller pot and stiffened-or replaced?- receiver’s calibration pots as well as facilitated my purchase of Louis Puli’s rigid mark rings as he had them in stock . He did all this for a very reasonable price and very fast.

[Rob Vuona SOC]

I sent my M-1 to Loonworks two weeks ago and finally got in touch with Don a couple days ago. I asked him if the company is ok and what the scoop was he said its all good and he's just a little behind. I told him he should chime in on the forum to let everyone know what's up. He told me my motor is fixed and he is shipping it back, yes the pot went out.

[Evrim KAYA]

I've sent couple of mails to Don over the time and never heard back. i also heard a lot of stories from fellow operators who sent their motors in and waited for months and months to receive the motors back or an e-mail reply. finally i had to try and find another one to service the motor. fortunately Pete picked up the slack.

 

it's a shame that Don is incapable to respond the demand. he made a hell of a motor. hopefully he will restructure the customer service of his brand soon. but until then it's nice to know that there is someone else out there who could help us.