[Eligius]

Hi everybody,

This is my first post to this forum, got here from another forum for jewellers and recogniced some familiar names here after quick browsing. I'm also jeweller and played with ArtCam software and Roland JWX-10 and Venture VPE 50 Venice mills for several years now. Mainly milling wax for lost wax casting process.

Ok, my question is about my Isel mill project, I'm collecting parts together and suggested to look at Gecko G540 driver. I'm pretty much newbie what comes to building up 4 axis mill, so I would like to have your opinion how my steppers would go with G540. Is there some major issues to come, do I need some extra parts to go, power supply, emergency stop swich and case to fit parts... I'm on the 230v 50Hz supply area. Planned to use Mach3 as a controller.

Best regards,

-niko-

[Mariss Freimanis]

What you have there is a 2A per phase step motor and a 2.8A motor. All you need to run them on a G540 are some 2K 1/4W resistors for the 2A motor and 2.7K 1/4W resistors for the 2.8A to program the G540 axis currents to those motors. You will also need a 36DC to 48VDC power supply rated at 6A or more to run them. Your E-stop switch must be a 'normally closed' type. Keep the case ventilated and use a 12VDC computer type fan blowing air across the back of the G540. A 1 Watt fan (12V @ 60mA) within 100mm (4") of the back of the drive is sufficient. There is no need for an external heatsink.

Please see http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/G54...Experiment.pdf

Mariss

[Eligius]

Thanks Mariss,

The G540 manual says:"The motors preferably should be square in cross-section, not round." My steppers are round... am I begging blood off my nose if I decide to go with these?

regards,

-niko-

[Mariss Freimanis]

No you are not and they will work just fine for you. Rather, square-cross-section motors would give you twice the low-speed torque of your round motors. Often times that's not important.

Mariss

[dmauch]

I have retrorfitted about 7 of the techno isel routers that are much larger than yours. Do you have the manual for your machine? If not I may be able to help with the wiring. Most techno systems use 8 wire motors. The stepper motor rating is per phase. The 2.8 amp motor is the unipolar rating. The bipolar parallel rating is 4A. If you wire the motors bipolar series then the current would be 2.07A Use a 2k current setting resistor if you wire it bipolar series. If you wire the motor bipolar parallel use a 3.48K resistor.
Some of the machines use a brake on the Z axis. This prevents backspinning of the Z axis ballscrew. If so then I would recommend a 24V 12A power supply that I can supply. It will run of 230VAC 50hz. This will provide the power for the motors and the 24V brake. On such a small machine 24V is more than adequate. If so contact me off line at [email protected]

[Eligius]

Thaks Mariss and dmauch!

@dmauch
I do have the manuals but I believe that I will need someone to walk me through this:drowning: so I might be contacting you some day

So you think 24V PS would be enough comparing to 48V? No speed loss etc.? Any suggestion where to order the G540 and PS?

By the way, is there some pre made case for G540, power supply and stuff or does people build up their boxes from what looks nice and they can find ?

Regards,

-niko-

And hey, forgot to add my rotary axis unit, it's also Isel build, with stepper motor. not much electrical data provided...

[dmauch]

On as small of a machine as you have the speed will be reduced from what a 48V pS can do with those motors but since you have such a small machine I think you would be more than satisfied with 24V and 24V solves the problem if you have a brake on the Z axis like most techno's have.
I also make a really nice case for the G540's The case is drilled and set up for the power supply that I sell. The opening for the G540 is milled in the back panel. I also have the electrical connectors a cooling fan and I also sell the G540"s for the same price as Geckodrives does. I can also supply the parallel port cables and the db9 cables.
Here are some pictures of my case.
I also sell a smaller pastic case. If you want I can email pictures of that also.
BTW the pictures shows the protective covering on the front panel. This can be peeled off leaving a shiny aluminum surface.

Thaks Mariss and dmauch!

@dmauch
I do have the manuals but I believe that I will need someone to walk me through this:drowning: so I might be contacting you some day

So you think 24V PS would be enough comparing to 48V? No speed loss etc.? Any suggestion where to order the G540 and PS?

By the way, is there some pre made case for G540, power supply and stuff or does people build up their boxes from what looks nice and they can find ?

Regards,

-niko-

And hey, forgot to add my rotary axis unit, it's also Isel build, with stepper motor. not much electrical data provided...