[WilliamJames]

Hi Everyone,

I am in the process of building my own CNC machine to cut out foam core wings. My unit will be set-up solely for the purpose of cutting foam products with a hot wire (with the wire itself controlled through an external setup) . My unit is 4-axis and I will be using Mach3 software.
Up until today, I was certain on purchasing the TB6560 control board with NEMA 23 motors. However, after reading more and learning of the countless TB6560 problems others have encountered, I'm not sure I want to pursue that particular control board. Given the aforementioned setup requirements, what is a decent control board that I can use? I'm not looking to break the bank, but I don't want to go really cheap either. Any advice provided would be greatly appreciated.

William James

[123CNC]

Have you looked at the Gecko G540? Great product, great support, and lots of forum help if you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable wiring her up.

[WilliamJames]

Have you looked at the Gecko G540? Great product, great support, and lots of forum help if you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable wiring her up.

Hi 123CNC,

Thank you for your reply. Just a couple of questions regarding the Gecko 540:

(i) If I go with the Gecko 540, will I still need to buy the stepper motors and power supply separately?

(ii) If I plan on running this and Mach3 on Windows 8 64-bit , will I still need to purchase the UC100 LPT-USB adapter?

(iii) My primary use for this product is to cut foam wings using a hot wire cutter. If some day I decide to transfer the Gecko 540 to a machine that can do other CNC functions (eg: laser cuttting, milling, etc..), will the G540 have that versatility?


Thanks again.

[123CNC]

Hi 123CNC,

Thank you for your reply. Just a couple of questions regarding the Gecko 540:

(i) If I go with the Gecko 540, will I still need to buy the stepper motors and power supply separately? Yes.

(ii) If I plan on running this and Mach3 on Windows 8 64-bit , will I still need to purchase the UC100 LPT-USB adapter? Guessing your Win8 64-bit doesn't hav an LPT, so yes UC100 or a PCI parallel port. wouldn't you need this as well for the TB6560?

(iii) My primary use for this product is to cut foam wings using a hot wire cutter. If some day I decide to transfer the Gecko 540 to a machine that can do other CNC functions (eg: laser cuttting, milling, etc..), will the G540 have that versatility?Yes, within the limits of the power range of the G251 drives, min to max voltage and amperage.But this is a pretty good range for hobby or home size 4-axis stepper driven machines.


Thanks again.

Hope that helps, I'm sure others will happily give their opinions and suggestions as well.

[WilliamJames]

Thank you so much for your help

[Jogeir Emil]

Go for the Gecko540, you will not be disappointed. I tried the cheap chinese board, but got tired of design flaws resulting in lost steps etc.

I am running my 6040 CNC router and my 4 axis foam cutter using nema23 motors and the Gecko540. The Gecko540 use db9 connectors with a resistor inside the plug to set the motor current. This allows a fast switch between machines as the current setting is part of the machine instead of the controller.

CNC foam cutter running linuxcnc 2.6.1 - YouTube

[James Newton]

Nothing beats a Gecko-drive. If you are handy with a soldering iron and you can't afford the G540, you might take a look at the THB6064AH kit I sell. People have managed to run rather amazing devices with it... like a 3D printer big enough to print a castle. Or a CNC machine that carves surfboards. But if you can afford the Gecko, go with that.

I /strongly/ recommend you NOT use a brand new, expensive, Windows 64 bit running workstation as the interface. Get an old PC with a parallel port and run LinuxCNC or Mach3 on it or even TurboCNC. That way, WHEN something goes wrong, you won't fry your nice machine.

If you must use the big iron, get a motion controller like GRBL or PlanetCNC which connects via the USB port and hook it up through a hub. This avoids the need for a parallel port and provides /some/ isolation.