[Mariss Freimanis]

Mariss,

It is truly a shame, but I understand. I have enjoyed and leaned a lot over past few years here and on the yahoo group. I have always enjoyed and respected Gecko drives because of this openness. It was a refreshing change from normal way that business was and is done. I wish you and all at Gecko well with future projects however you decide to go about them.

People who are working on integrating the drives into equipment or people who simply want more information will be accommodated as before. Nothing changes except communication will no longer be via a public forum for pending products. Just e-mail or PM and you will be treated with the same openness and consideration you expect as before.

Mariss

[eman5oh]

Mariss,

I was more talking about this thread and the ones that came before it on the yahoo list and here as well talking about the g100 and g203v and of course now the g250/251/540. The private communication and that I have had with Gecko go well above and beyond. I enjoy from time to time poking though the threads reading of your trails and tribulation of bringing new products to market. Working as an engineer it is enjoyable reading and can relate to it. I truly wish that there was more of it available not only form you but other companies as well. With what has transpired here I do not fault you one bit in wanting to play your cards closer to the chest. I think that it is an unfortunate necessity these days. While I envy your products and designs I do not envy the role you have in running a business. For me I am lucky enough to have a job where I can create stuff and not have to worry about selling it, just make it do the job that needs to be done, and so far they all have been fun projects. Getting paid to have fun nothing beats it. In that I hope you continue to enjoy your work, as it is not worth it in the end it makes you miserable.

People who are working on integrating the drives into equipment or people who simply want more information will be accommodated as before. Nothing changes except communication will no longer be via a public forum for pending products. Just e-mail or PM and you will be treated with the same openness and consideration you expect as before.

Mariss

[tauntdesigns]

A few BAD APPLES ( you know who you are ) has ruined a really good thing.
I have learned a lot during THIS and other threads from Gecko and wish them to continue, yet I do understand and respect Geckos' decisions. BUMMER!

Trying to learn more,
Jack

[Mariss Freimanis]

Well said, LeeWay.





That's really a shame, Mariss. I can understand the reasoning behind your decision, but I have really enjoyed this thread. Seeing the process you go through to make a new drive has made it clear to me that Gecko is the only way to go. Maybe in the future you could do something similar without ever entioning a price. That way, no one can be upset about a price change. Just state right from the start that no price will be discussed until the final product is in production. Refer people to this thread if they want to know why.

That is a reasonable suggestion and I will certainly think about it. I would also like to include me politely not answering "when will it be done" type questions from now on. Some projects are sweethearts and progress with little or no fight. Others fight from start to finish. I never know the project's 'temperament' until I'm well into it. More than anything, this nature determines how long it will actually take.

Mariss

[tauntdesigns]

I'm alright with that.... PLEASE!

[Bubba]

Mariss,
While I run servos and not steppers, I have found the engineering/thought process of this thread very interesting. I would also hope that you will continue the "blog" approach on such future projects as you see fit as it gives people like me an insight not only to the capabilities of the end product, but what it took to get it there!
You have been very helpful to me (and others) with your openness and ability to share problem solving for us in a way that we can understand. In other words, you can talk at our level which many times is like crawling at a babies pace.

As stated above, thank you for all the past help and hopefully sharing your next project with us.

[Mariss Freimanis]

Mariss,

While I envy your products and designs I do not envy the role you have in running a business. For me I am lucky enough to have a job where I can create stuff and not have to worry about selling it, just make it do the job that needs to be done, and so far they all have been fun projects. Getting paid to have fun nothing beats it. In that I hope you continue to enjoy your work, as it is not worth it in the end it makes you miserable.

My deep pleasure is conjuring up circuits that solve problems in unique and simple ways. I love what I do. The 'high' I get from a surprising solution or discovery makes me want to share it with my peers here and elsewhere. My hope is they will enjoy the same intellectual pleasure from it as I do because it tickles the mind.

This time I made the mistake of including non technical aspects. I found out non-technical considerations unfortunately carry an integral emotional component and a small part of that was expressed by some in a personally abusive manner. I didn't sign up for making people angry or disappointed or being called names in return. The politics of 'handling' people is clearly not my forte.

That is why I'm handling things differently by keeping it strictly technical from now on.

Mariss

[PoolQ]

Thoughts from being "burned" in the past.

If you have a $120 product on the market and you think you can make a $30 product, talk about a $85-$90 product until release. you should be a hero when you release the final numbers

talk about release dates in quarters not months or weeks until you are qualitity testing and then only if you are half way through. If you think march say Q2. When starting a brand new project say half years

very few people that don't run a business understand how much it costs to do it.

It's always better to outperform expectations with customers. set them up front and never with internal goals

[gfc62]

That is a reasonable suggestion and I will certainly think about it.
Mariss

Perhaps your future product development blogs could be done in a subscription-only forum where interested readers would be forced to fill out an NWA (Non Whining Agreement)

Mariss, I hope you have a great 4th and are able to get a much-needed break from this forum. Stay away for a couple of days, I'm sure the important questions will still be here when you get back and the other kind will be handled by us referring to earlier posts. I also suggest you stay away from the BBQ tomorrow so you don't have to hear any other 'Is it done yet?' questions...:stickpoke

Gordon

[tauntdesigns]

I also suggest you stay away from the BBQ tomorrow so you don't have to hear any other 'Is it done yet?' questions...:stickpoke

Gordon

I don't care who you are, That's funny!!!!!!! :cheers:

Jack

[epineh]

My deep pleasure is conjuring up circuits that solve problems in unique and simple ways. I love what I do. The 'high' I get from a surprising solution or discovery makes me want to share it with my peers here and elsewhere. My hope is they will enjoy the same intellectual pleasure from it as I do because it tickles the mind.

This time I made the mistake of including non technical aspects. I found out non-technical considerations unfortunately carry an integral emotional component and a small part of that was expressed by some in a personally abusive manner. I didn't sign up for making people angry or disappointed or being called names in return. The politics of 'handling' people is clearly not my forte.

That is why I'm handling things differently by keeping it strictly technical from now on.

Mariss

Technical is good, I had unsubscribed from this thread as soon as the "are we there yet" posts started rolling in thick and fast, the drive naming comp was fun, I really enjoyed the drive evolving and the design/thought process involved in making a commercial drive from concept to creation, something us hobbiest electronics types don't usually get a chance to see, thanks for that.

Once more the thread is going down the "is it finished yet ?...what will it cost...blah blah blah" so I am going to unsubscribe again, but I did enjoy the drive building info and I am sure that is what the thread was intended to do so at least that part was a success.

Honestly if the price of drives was all I had to worry about...build a bridge - get over it ! Mariss set a goal and went for it, it didn't pan out the way he intended, so what? I for one have enjoyed this thread and others like it, they have given me the inspiration to have a go myself, instead of getting home from work, and "veging" out in front of the telly for hours before sleep now I am spending time researching gate driver circuitry, MOSFET selection, RDS on values, building PCB printers, buying and reading textbooks, all for my new hobby !

Keep up the good (technical) work ! It gives the rest of us mere mortal electronic guys a high standard to aim for.

Russell.

[Mariss Freimanis]

Technical is good, I had unsubscribed from this thread as soon as the "are we there yet" posts started rolling in thick and fast, the drive naming comp was fun, I really enjoyed the drive evolving and the design/thought process involved in making a commercial drive from concept to creation, something us hobbiest electronics types don't usually get a chance to see, thanks for that.

Once more the thread is going down the "is it finished yet ?...what will it cost...blah blah blah" so I am going to unsubscribe again, but I did enjoy the drive building info and I am sure that is what the thread was intended to do so at least that part was a success.

Honestly if the price of drives was all I had to worry about...build a bridge - get over it ! Mariss set a goal and went for it, it didn't pan out the way he intended, so what? I for one have enjoyed this thread and others like it, they have given me the inspiration to have a go myself, instead of getting home from work, and "veging" out in front of the telly for hours before sleep now I am spending time researching gate driver circuitry, MOSFET selection, RDS on values, building PCB printers, buying and reading textbooks, all for my new hobby !

Keep up the good (technical) work ! It gives the rest of us mere mortal electronic guys a high standard to aim for.

Russell.

Russell,

Don't quit just yet.:-) The fun part is designing something towards a particular set of rigid specifications. It in someways is like some reality show on TV for geeks (Junkyard Wars?): "You have a $6 budget for parts; the winner is who will build the best drive possible" to "You have a 2" by 2.4" printed circuit board. The winner will be the one who fits the best drive possible in that space." Entirely different specifications.

Design to me is the art of compromise; trade off what's unessential for what is essential. See the design in your mind as an organic whole, what it should look like, and move its pieces around in your head a dozen or a hundred times into new permutations until the optimal combination leaps out at you. You will know it because perfection is beauty and everyone knows what pretty looks like.

Bliss is when sometimes two essential requirements merge into one. The two birds, one stone thing. Any self-respecting drive must have an LED power indicator and every drive must have one or more voltage regulators. This drive must have a 1.8VDC regulator and a GaAs red LED has a forward voltage of 1.8V. It was like the Hershey Chocolate truck colliding with the Planters Peanut truck. The resulting merge was serendipitous.

Why not just design in a 1.8V LDO regulator? It's $0.32 vs. $0.02 and it's unimaginative. The LED/1.8V regulator trades in the unessential for the essential. The CPLD runs at 5MHz so supply current is 10uA at 1.8VDC; I don't need a 100mA regulator. A simple shunt regulator will do. The source voltage is 3.3V (op-amp for this). I don't need an LDO regulator. The input/output differential voltage will always be a healthy 1.5V. The CPLD 1.8V supply specs at a loose 1.6V to 1.9V tolerance. An LED has a silicon like -2mV/C tempco. Even uncompensated the tempco guarantees in-spec operation. I temperature compensated it anyway just because I can. Result? an indicator LED lit nice and bright with 4mA. A comfortable shunt regulator carrying 4mA of shunt current for a load requiring 10uA.

Sorry for the detail on one very small part of the circuit. The point was to illustrate the trade offs made made when carefully considering a circuit design.

Mariss

[jemmyell]

Just my two cents:

"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong"

Buckminster Fuller (Inventor of the Geodesic Dome and more)

-James Leonard

[Mariss Freimanis]

Just my two cents:

"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong"

Buckminster Fuller (Inventor of the Geodesic Dome and more)

-James Leonard

I agree completely. I have a problem to solve. I work towards a solution. I come up with many solutions. I recognize the best one because it is beautiful. Simple as that.

Mariss

[Teyber]

i too unsubscribed when i had about 200 emails, i can understand why people are annoyed but the point has been made.

regards

[Capteod]

This is a great idea. WHEN will they be available?

[LeeWay]

Immediately after the announcement by someone from Gecko.
Soon now I would think at least for the initial introductory offer. Just subscribe to this thread if you haven't already.

[tauntdesigns]

Hi Capteod,

WHEN? SOON!

IIRC The Rev. 5 drives (boards) had a flaw and have to be re-worked. They will be sold during the intro price sale. The new Rev. boards are still a few weeks away from delivery from the board mfg. and can then be put into production.

When Gecko has re-worked the Rev. 5 boards, they will post here, and the feeding frenzy will begin.

Later,
Jack

[epineh]

Russell,

Don't quit just yet.:-) The fun part is designing something towards a particular set of rigid specifications. It in someways is like some reality show on TV for geeks (Junkyard Wars?): "You have a $6 budget for parts; the winner is who will build the best drive possible" to "You have a 2" by 2.4" printed circuit board. The winner will be the one who fits the best drive possible in that space." Entirely different specifications.

Mariss

Hi Mariss, I guess the most important of my design spec's is "try not to blow it up" Unfortunately I have failed that one on a number of occasions, but have learned a thing or two in the process, little things like don't power up H Bridge's with DC straight from a battery bank with little capacitance on the supply - so THATS what dv/dt induced turn on can do (chair)

I get a lot of satisfaction from working out what I need to know to achieve a goal, learning the nitty gritty as much as I can, then putting it all together to make it work. I try to do one thing at a time and test as I go. For me there is nothing like the smile you get when you put all the components of a system together and it works more or less as it should.

My electronics interest is a hobby level and I have no intention of making a profit from any of my little foray's, my day job covers that, but I do enjoy tinkering around, besides parts are generally cheap and if something does happen to blast itself into smaller pieces it is not the end of the world.

Cheers.

Russell.

[High Seas]

With all the effort into the G240/250, I hope I don't ask these out of turn:
SIZE:
Haven't found a reference to this in the over 1000 posts (maybe missed it) but it looks like it is about 7 x 2.5 x 1.25 inches. [From the posted photos- mockups] Close?
AVAILABILITY:
Certainly after the G240s -- but in the next 30-60 days?
COST:
Will there be a Limited Time Offer like the G240/250s? Ballpark costs ?

TIA :cheers: Jim