[johnt]

My home brew router has gecko 201's.
One of them feels noticeably hotter than the others.
(I already read in the FAQ's that if it's uncomfortable for me, it's uncomfortable for the electronics too.)
All 3 are mounted on a 1/4" thick aluminum plate as a heat sink but after some research I've decided to change that to a finned heat sink.
So I guess my questions are:
Besides proper heat sinking, what factors make them run hot in the first place?....
Why would one axis be hotter?
Does motor tuning or mechanical friction make them hotter?

Oh, and is it normal for the red light on the drive to fluctuate in brightness?
Thanks,
John

[Richards]

Have you checked all the G201 drivers to verify that the reduced-current jumper is set the same on all drivers? Do you have the same value current limiting resistor on all drivers? Are you driving the same model motor with all drivers? Are all the motors wired the same (bipolar series, half-coil, bipolar parallel)? Are all motors being driven at approximately the same speed for approximately the same amount of time?

Finned heat sinks are good. Adding a fan is even better.

I think that I remember reading that the brightness of the L.E.D. is in relation to the pulse rate. In other words, the faster the pulse rate, the dimmer the L.E.D.; however, I can't find that information in the G201's manual, so I might be in error.

The updated G201 manual is available from the www.geckodrive.com website.

[johnt]

Thank you for that reply.
I haven't checked any jumpers inside the geckos, but as for your other questions, yes the limit resistors are the same, motors are same models and wired the same (they are 4 wire motors) and they are all running at the same speed.

[dertsap]

if you drivers are getting too hot to touch then you have a problem
the geckos will warm up some and sometimes they'll will get hot depending on the use and how much amperage your pushing thru , my motors are 6.5amp and the drivers get warm after a while so i use a couple $3 surplus pc fans and it cools them right down .