ES120 motion controlled screwdriver - video, photos

[Jon]

A "motion controlled" screwdriver. Anyone use these? Gimmick or gold?

In period-correct Chinglish verbiage, this is variously referred to as an "electric screwer", "screw driverr", and "screwdirver" - all on the same page on Banggood.



Marketed to the music tech crowd? I love the upside-down book.



It's accompanied by suspiciously uniform 5-star reviews. Skepticism aside, none of this means that the tool isn't worthwhile, especially for specific niche applications.



Around $100 in various spots; just search around for "ES120".

5:14 video with teardown:

[mklotz]

The 4 mm tips that are available inexpensively, e.g...

https://www.amazon.com/IDM-Screwdriv...iver+set&psc=1

not only cover all the conventional screwhead configurations but the weird, such as triangular, as well. Many sets include small metric sockets which are expensive if bought from a name supplier such as Wiha.

I don't find much use for an electric driver for these tiny screws. They're seldom very long and the torque required to seat or free them is easily available from your muscles. I have encountered a few rare occasions where the manufacturer used a very long screw and operating it by hand alone was tedious.

My solution was not to spend $100 on some techie gadget. Instead I bought a 1/4" hex to 4 mm hex adaptor made by Wiha...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and use my conventional electric screwdriver.

BTW, never use an electric screwdriver to seat one of these tiny screws. In many assemblies they're threaded directly into plastic and even a lightweight electric has enough torque to strip them in a heartbeat. Run them almost all the way in with the electric and then use a manual driver to do the final seating.

[Frank S]

I hardly think that I will be ordering one, not because I feel it is gimmicky. After viewing the video of the tear down and reassembly it does from as much as can be seen to be good quality for what it is. If I were heavily into micro tech repair where on a daily basis the requirement to remove or replace 100's of the tiny fasteners would be involved I might consider it. I do own 5 or 6 of those seemingly million selection 4 mm bit sets for the odd times when I do have to work certain devices.
It might make a good Christmas present for my 43 year old son in law since he has already had 1 hand surgery as result of having to fiddle with those tiny fasteners in his tech repair business for the past 20 years.