[DingbatCA]

Building my 7th CNC. All other were from scratch and used a HobbyCNC Pro boards. It is time for me to grow up. My current CNC is pleged with mid-band resonance. I need real stepper controllers.

The new CNC. 4x8 curring area, thats feet. Moving from a screw drive to rack and pinion rig. Dual X axis, one per side. Looking at 425oz-in bipolar/305oz-unipolar steppers. I will need 4 controllers.

There are lost of drive on the market.
Gecko, ProboStep, HobbyCNC... Just to name a few. I have been looking at the Gecko G540. Is there a better controller for the cost? Dont care if it is a single controller, or a 4 in one controller.

I am willing to spend the cash on a good controller.

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Dingbat. Welcome to the Zone!

If you already HAVE the 4 HobbyCNC 425s, they are 57V motors. They will give you very fast rapids wired Bipolar Parallel with the $299 50V 3.5A G540 and a $129 Keling KL5010 PSU. They are 4.2A motors when wired BP, so there will be a slight loss of torque when run at 3.5A--But they still should be plenty powerful enough.

http://kelinginc.net/

CR.

[Crevice Reamer]

If you don't already HAVE the 425 motors though, I would go with the more efficient three $39 KL23H276-28-4B 270s on X and Y and a $49 KL23H284-35-4B 387 oz on the Z.

http://kelinginc.net/SMotorstock.html

CR.

[DingbatCA]

Assume I have no hardware, with the exception of the PSU. I can provide any volts, at any amps needed.

Stating that, why Gecko's over drives like KL-8078?

[Crevice Reamer]

Assume I have no hardware, with the exception of the PSU. I can provide any volts, at any amps needed.

Stating that, why Gecko's over drives like KL-8078?

Gecko offers Mid band resonance dampning and micro step to full step speed morphing. These are performance enhancers and give fast rapids. Some Geckos, like the G203V and G540 are "unkillable" drives that won't die if one of your motor connectors happens to come loose. The American made Geckos come with excellent warranty and fantastic customer support.

Well, if you want to spend more money, I would spend the $10 more and go with $139 Gecko 203Vs. But lets go with the $129 8078s for a minute.

$516 = 4 8078s Add a high tech breakout board,
$100 and probably PSU for BOB
$020
-----
$636 Total.

But you if you don't NEED 80V and 7A, so you could use the plug and play G540:

$299 G540. Includes Built-in high tech optoisolated BOB with charge pump, inputs for home/limit switches, outputs for relays and BOB PSU. Plus it saves a lot of wiring hassle.
-----
$299 total.

http://geckodrive.com/product.aspx?c=3&i=14469

CR.