[morestuff]

Gecko has been sending out emails announcing a contest to get a free G214 driver, but I cannot find any information about this drive.

Does anyone know anything about it?

Link to the contest here: Gecko Drive Blog: Digital Step Motor Controls & Stepper Drives

[CoAMarcus]

I was going to make a new thread on it because it looks like some wires got crossed here and the contest launched before we had put anything out there about what the drive is. I will post a quick sheet on it later once it is completely ready (read: once someone has fixed all my typos).

In short, the G214 is our newest motor control only drive targeted to end-users and industrial users. The drive is a ground up redesign of everything we have done before and uses new techniques for nearly every part of controlling the motor. In effect it only has about 12 components in common with our other drives and those are all related to the dual H-bridge. It is rated for 80VDC and 7A but we are looking into raising that to 8.25A on the next revision.

The resolution is settable with an onboard DIP switch and it has fourteen settable resolutions, ranging from half step to 256 microstep is both binary (2, 4, 8, 16, etc) or decimal (5, 10, 25, 50, etc). It inherited the sub-microstepping from the GM215 so even at half step it will be moving with the smoothness of an even higher resolution.

It has a bunch of features we have never done before like the higher resolution options, sub-microstepping, LED blink codes, a fuse indicator LED that will light up in the event the fuse has blown, adjustable standby current with a trimpot, a motor range of NEMA 8 - 42, and a self-test button so users can diagnose issues in the field.

Last but not least, this was designed to be a form, fit and function drop in replacement for the discontinued IM483 and IM805. The footprint and pinout match so the drive can be swapped very easily to upgrade to new technology.

Anyway, I will put up some more stuff and a manual once we have it all ready to go. We are looking to launch the G214 this week or early next week depending on documentation being completed. We are in production on it right now and have some in the field already with good reviews on large and very small motors alike. We are also going to put out some videos on how to use it and it's most common features so people can be up and running as quickly as possible.

[arizonavideo]

8.25A is good and a few big steppers will be more useful but most larger steppers have high inductance and should give better performance at 100V or so.

This is a 1200oz Nema 34 stepper at 6A- 6.5mh inductance. It would be better at 100V. It would be nice if they made a 8A 4mH version but I have not found one.

High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Stepper Motor | Stepper Motor Driver | CNC Router | Laser Machine | 3D Prin

I know higher voltage outputs will have a higher on resistance so would require much more heat sinking but it would drive many of the large stepper better.

I'm looking forward to the new driver.

[morestuff]

Here is a 1200 oz-in motor that is slightly better, at 6 amperes, 5.1 mH, and 0.45 ohms.

REXSTEP Hi-Torque Stepper Motor 1200 oz/in Model #RHT34-1200

8.25A is good and a few big steppers will be more useful but most larger steppers have high inductance and should give better performance at 100V or so.

This is a 1200oz Nema 34 stepper at 6A- 6.5mh inductance. It would be better at 100V. It would be nice if they made a 8A 4mH version but I have not found one.

High-Torque Stepper Motor, Stepper Motor, Driver, Stepper Motor kit, DC Servo Motor, DC Servo Motor kit, Stepper Motor Power Supply, CNC Router, Spindle, and other Components. Stepper Motor | Stepper Motor Driver | CNC Router | Laser Machine | 3D Prin

I know higher voltage outputs will have a higher on resistance so would require much more heat sinking but it would drive many of the large stepper better.

I'm looking forward to the new driver.

[ger21]

IF I'm not mistaken, Gecko has always had the stance that higher DC voltages can be lethal, so they prefer to stay in the lower voltage range.

[CoAMarcus]

ger21 is correct. We will keep the voltage rating at 80VDC for safety reasons. The extra 1.25A bump will allow very large motors to be used to their full torque ability though, so the drive is not exactly lacking in power output.

[ger21]

Any idea how these drives compare to a Leadshine AM882 or EM-806?

Seems like Gecko has been losing a lot of business to Leadshine the last few years.

[CoAMarcus]

We haven't tested the EM-806 but have tested the AM882 and it's operation made us pretty confident in our new anti-resonance algorithms. We will be doing some comparisons but it is night and day seeing the G214 accelerating through all resonance zones versus Chinese drives. Though not Leadshine, one of our engineers had to stop a test early because the drive it was being compared to for a customer began to have its current oscillate out of control. As the drive was trying to compensate for resonance the waveform was going from 3.2A peak and rising until we shut it off at 5A.

We were nervous about Leadshine when they first appeared but a number of our customers and a few distributors have actually found us because of problems they were having with Leadshine drives. Quality control has been their main issue, and is something we focus on. I don't typically like to talk inside baseball or mudsling online so I will leave it at that.

Getting back to the G214, we were thinking of doing a CNC Zone specific contest to win a few. I will be posting the manual as soon as it is done but of now I will post our quick sheet, which has all of the basic information on the drive.

http://geckodrive.com/gecko/images/c...et%20Final.pdf

We are always out of contest ideas and wind up doing the same thing like "show us what you use your drives for". We are up for something new, so if someone has an idea for a contest I am all ears!

[habibmgh]

hi CoAMarcus i'am using hdbb2 with 12v power suplie so
and you montion in the g214 manual that this driver is handel 3.3 to 5v power suplie from breackout board
so you have any solution please?
http://cncdrive.com/downloads/HDBB2_manual.pdf
Attachment 331258
and for wiring hdbb2 use rj45 to connect stepper driver to breakout board in this way
Pinout of RJ45 connectors:
1.) Step signal
2.) Direction signal
3.) LPT port ground
4.) N/C (No internal connection)
5.) Reset signal (Output from breakout board)
6.) Common ERROR line (Bidirectional line)
7.) DC power output+
8.) DC power output-
so can i connect all this pins to g214 driver?
please help me

[morestuff]

While the HDBB2 is powered by 12 VDC, its step and direction outputs
are conventional 5 volt logic levels.

[QUOTE=habibmgh;1927628]hi CoAMarcus i'am using hdbb2 with 12v power suplie so
and you montion in the g214 manual that this driver is handel 3.3 to 5v power suplie from breackout board
so you have any solution please?
http://cncdrive.com/downloads/HDBB2_manual.pdf

[habibmgh]

hi thank you
and this rj45 pin connect like this to g214
1.) Step signal to pin2 step
2.) Direction signal to pin3 dir
3.) LPT port ground to pin1 gdn
4.) N/C (No internal connection)
5.) Reset signal (Output from breakout board) to pin6 reset
6.) Common ERROR line (Bidirectional line) to pin7 err
7.) DC power output+ to pin4 5v
8.) DC power output-
is that correct?
and what about pin4 and pin8

[morestuff]

I would recommend the following connections.

HDBB2-RJ45......G214-CN2

1 (step).............2 (step
2 (dir)................3 (dir)
3 (gnd)..............1 (gnd)
4 no connect
5 no connect
6 (error).............7 (fault)
7 no connect
8 no connect

Pin 4 of the HDBB2 does nothing and need not be connected.

Pin 5 of the HDBB2 (reset) cannot be activated from the parallel port
connector and is only meaningful for a group of CNCDrive brand
servo drivers signaling each other. If you wish to freewheel (reset)
the G214 drivers you will need an external signal such as a switch.

Pins 7 and 8 are DC power for CNCDrive brand servo drivers and is not
needed by the G214

hi thank you
and this rj45 pin connect like this to g214
1.) Step signal to pin2 step
2.) Direction signal to pin3 dir
3.) LPT port ground to pin1 gdn
4.) N/C (No internal connection)
5.) Reset signal (Output from breakout board) to pin6 reset
6.) Common ERROR line (Bidirectional line) to pin7 err
7.) DC power output+ to pin4 5v
8.) DC power output-
is that correct?
and what about pin4 and pin8