On Saturday 05 July 2014 08:54:14 John Alexander Stewart did opine And Gene did reply: > Hi all; Hope this question is considered on-topic, or at least not too > far off. > > I'm doing another CNC conversion - my largest yet. G0704 (BF20) style > mill, and I'm wondering about stepper drivers. (Have a Mesa 5i25/7i76 > combo; maybe my next machine will be servo) > > I'm wondering about drivers - I have as spares a Gecko G540, some 48v > 7.5a switching power supplies, a couple Gecko 3.5A drivers (the ones > in the G540, but standalone) but wondering: > > 1) digital drivers, eg automationtechnologiesinc.com ones, are they > worth the price? > > 2) China drivers look the same as 1); presumably the technology is the > same, just name-badging; > > 3) Europeans seem to use smaller steppers than North Americans; is > there much savings (e.g., power, heat) from using smaller steppers? > I'd guess so. > > I'm in Canada, so shipping from the USA or China or Europe is about the > same - expensive - so source location is not an issue. > > It does seem a shame to purchase new drivers and power supplies, but I > might as well do this machine "right". > > Thanks for any insights you might give. > > John A. Stewart.
John, I am currently using 6 of the 2M542 Chinese drivers, 50 volt rated, 4.2 amps. They also make a larger 80 volt, more amps version. The 2M542's can be had at around a $50 bill each on fleabay, and they have now outlasted their money in other units burned up. I bought 7 at the time so I'd have a spare, 3 years later the 7nth is still in the box in the drawer beside the lathe. Running both double stack (262 oz) and triple stack (425 oz) Nema 23's with them. My supplies aren't really at the 50 volt limit, one at 28, one at around 38. I even accidentally crow barred one, it tripped off, needed a power down reset, but no damage. Not recommended below 24 volts as that raises the operating temperature. Good drivers IMO. My $0.02. :) Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open source business process management suite built on Java and Eclipse Turn processes into business applications with Bonita BPM Community Edition Quickly connect people, data, and systems into organized workflows Winner of BOSSIE, CODIE, OW2 and Gartner awards http://p.sf.net/sfu/Bonitasoft _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
