Gizmoszone lockout?

[randgust]

My 'go to' place for gearheads and gearhead motors appears to have run afoul of something.   

It's not particularly unusual for somebody to run into temporary issues with their ISP, but this is well now into about three months and I'm not seeing any signs of resolution.

If you do the 'gizmoszone.com' URL you'll come back with a nice 'ACCOUNT SUSPENDED' message, which is never good.   There's been no movement on that situation now for months, and googling it indicates that it started in January or February.    The last order I got was January 18.   As far as I know, this was a manufacturer-controlled outlet and they always shipped direct from Hong Kong.

If you try to even contact them - "Domain gizmoszone.com has an outgoing mail suspension.  Message discarded."   You can speculate, but it doesn't get us anywhere.

Now, robotshop has a lot of tiny gearheads, and I can still get the tiny solarbotics ones I use for my Climax, but gizmoszone also had tiny gears, gearheads, a lot of very useful stuff.  As far as I knew, that was the only outlet for their product, if somebody else has found a source, let us know.  I've got a few motors in inventory, but darn....

The actual company 'appears' to be Marswell Engineering, and their domain name is expired.   No news posted anywhere.  From what I can find out, it was a pretty small outfit, sort of a Chinese equivalent of NWSL.    It's looking like it's closed to me (zoominfo.com listed it as 'defunct'), and possibly the domain hacked, but that's also pure speculation.   While the difficulty and decline of small niche manufacturers in the mainland has been fairly well broadcast since 2017, this was a Hong Kong outfit, which now, may have not made much difference.   But it is still an interesting observation on how a company can apparently disappear in China.

[narrowminded]

The story you're relaying is always sad to hear but is also why I've been so intent on making my own parts for my planned products, gears and all, even though it's often a LOT of extra work and maybe not the cheapest or easiest way to go.  It's a lesson I knew and also learned a few more times in my previous business life.  Subbing main components that are critical to a design and not generic (like bolts and nuts) has  a way of biting at some point, and biting hard.  Somebody has a meeting some day, that you weren't invited to, and makes a decision that thoroughly screws up your business.   Especially when it's a small volume, specialty product.  It'll be tough but I know you'll figure it out.

[DKS]

Hopefully (strong emphasis here) this is a case of a small company having lost track of their internet service provider/host/domain name/etc. account(s), and just need to bring them current. I've seen this often enough to know it's not uncommon. Now, it could be that they folded up shop so suddenly that they didn't have the time to post going-out-of-business announcements, etc. It's also encouraging that there's no "this domain name is available for purchase" notice, which would be a clear indicator that they are no more. So give it some time and keep checking on them.

[randgust]

Luckily these particular gearheads aren't critically strategic to what I'm making, but their ability to match up to the Kato 11-105 motors has made several wonderful drive combinations in both my Whitcomb 65-tonners and various tender-drive options I've developed.   Their 5.14:1 head gives just about a perfect RPM reduction to those pager-size motors.  Really good product, but a really small company made them and I'm suspecting they just closed up and blew away.   There's some similar stuff on 'bay, we'll see.  Just wondering if I'm the only one that even noticed.

I worked in the OEM automotive parts supply business for 10 years.   I was schooled in all the classic Japanese JIT and quality models, but we also had a Mexican production facility, where I rapidly also learned that anything that can possibly go wrong, will, in ways that we don't even think about north of the border.  A lesson on disruption of the supply chain I never quite forgot.   As OEM suppliers, we learned a few tricks too, like keeping a spare truckload ready just over the border for the day we lost an entire semi into the Detroit River, driver escaped but the load didn't.   

So I have lots of sympathy for the RR manufacturers trying to have product built in China.

[mmagliaro]

I noticed their website was locked out months ago, but I have no other info.  I assumed they went out of business and didn't pay their bills.

If you search eBay for 6mm Planetary Gear Motor, it will turn up a nice assortment of cheap motors with metal or plastic gearheads on them, and some say "1200 rpm", and the gearheads look shorter than the majority of these that have gear reductions way too high for our use.  I suspect that even the 1200 might be a 16:1, not 4:1.

I ordered a few of the 8mm size some time ago, with much longer gearheads, knowing that there was too much reduction, because I figured I'd just cut the gearhead case shorter and take out some planetary stages.  It does work, and it's easier to do than on a Faulhaber because, let's face it, the cases on these cheap things are easier to cut and the gears aren't as precisely made, so you can get away with a little more error.

These two places have a lot of motors and gears, which helps there (not gearheads, though):

http://www.pojezdy.eu/eshop/271-drzaky-motoru

and

https://shop.kkpmo.com/index.php

[Bangorboy]

I just found similar stuff on https://marswell.en.china.cn/
Did a search on Marswell Engineering, selected teh fourth entry,
Marswell Engineering Ltd - Plastic gear; gearbox; standard plastic ...Is that the same site no longer available under Gizmozone?
Problem is, it seems to have only basic information on products, with no prices or way to order.

[randgust]

The gearbox that I was typically buying is still listed as a part.   So the assumption here is that the gizmoszone was a distributor, they went down, but at least the manufacturer still appears alive, so I've contacted them looking for another distribution source.   We'll see if I get an answer.  Anyway, thanks for the link there and we'll see what happens.