On Saturday, July 30, 2011 07:51:03 PM Steve Stallings did opine: > In general, the G540 has a good reputation. > Unlike Xylotex, Geckodrive will repair > their products, usually for free. > > The speed and power of your motors will > improve noticably. > > The G540 does have one design quirk. The > inputs are optocouplers driven from just > the power of the parallel port buffers. > This works OK for motherboard ports that > can be put into EPP mode, but may cause > issues with PCI based cards if you cannot > convince them to run in EPP mode. The > difference is that EPP mode drives the > control signals (as opposed to data ones) > using a totem pole with active pull up. > Non-EPP mode uses a passive 4.7K pull up > typically and the G540 does not work well > with that. In particular the "charge pump" > will fail to operate, but I suspect the > same issue applies to the other 3 control > pins. > > I seem to remember you using a PMDX-106
Yes, works great. > for spindle control. Interfacing that to > the G540 could be interesting. You may be > able to do without it entirely as the G540 > includes an isolated analog output and two > open collector relay drivers. Some rewiring > will be needed, but it should be workable. That will bear looking into, but it seems the BOB should allow me to continue to use the setup I have. I didn't get the g540, but 5 each of a slightly higher powered Chinese one per motor kit. $50.99 a channel. Free ship. One is a spare. Hopefully I'll only blow 1 at a time. :( > Regards, > Steve Stallings > > -----Original Message----- > From: gene heskett [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2011 4:51 PM > To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) > Subject: [Emc-users] bad news, xylotex died > > Greetings all; > > My xylotex went pop,pop,pop when I hit the keyboard for a x move about 2 > hours ago. Also the odor of burnt parts was in the air. > > So, since this will be the 3rd xylotex to expire on me, I am inclined to > look elsewhere for the next set of drivers. > > Looking at the Gecko G540, which isn't that much bigger, but would allow > me to raise the motor voltage about 20 volts above what I have now. > Its a package that puts 4 each 50 volt, 3.5 amp, 10 microstep G250's in > an easily mountable package. I see I can get it for $242 + ship, which > is more than the xylotex. > > What has been the general experience of this group with the G540? > > Cheers, gene Cheers, gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Chicken Little was right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Got Input? Slashdot Needs You. Take our quick survey online. Come on, we don't ask for help often. Plus, you'll get a chance to win $100 to spend on ThinkGeek. http://p.sf.net/sfu/slashdot-survey _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
