[AElliott]

Hey all, I used to hang out on this site a lot, but have been away for a few years. Here's the situation, I have 2 homebuilt wood routers using Mach3 and gecko 201 drives. I must have had a power surge or something because out of the 6 geckos I have, only one now works...a second one works but I suspect it stutters and loses steps. I know I have to replace the drives so my question is...What's the best replacement? Are DIY people still using geckos or is there a better option out there now? My motors are NEMA23 at around 1.5 - 3amps /phase. Any opinions are welcome. Thanks.

[ger21]

If your using less than 50V, then the Gecko G540 is by far the most commonly used drive.

[AElliott]

Thanks, I was looking at that one. I'm a little gunshy with Gecko all-in-one modules because we spent the money on a Grex100 and it's now useless because they never finished the firmware.

[ger21]

In their defense, the Grex was never designed to be used with Mach3, and a 3rd party was writing the firmware.
Don't buy electronics before they are working 100%.

An alternative to the G540 (and other Gecko drives) are Leashine digital drives available at Automation Technology Inc

[Torchhead]

Thanks, I was looking at that one. I'm a little gunshy with Gecko all-in-one modules because we spent the money on a Grex100 and it's now useless because they never finished the firmware.

The G540 is a BoB and 4 G250 drives that can be replaced.if needed. Biggest drawback is the motor cables are DB9 that are getting harder to find and you have to apply the current limit resistor to the DB9. Some G540 vendors sell cables to match.

[AElliott]

The G540 is a BoB and 4 G250 drives that can be replaced.if needed. Biggest drawback is the motor cables are DB9 that are getting harder to find and you have to apply the current limit resistor to the DB9. Some G540 vendors sell cables to match.

I definitely got burned on the G100...they sure didn't advertise that it was still in beta when they sold it to me.
Looks like the G540 is all in a neat little package, good to know parts are replaceable if needed. My smaller CNC actually already uses DB9s on the motors, I'll just have to re-pin them to match. I see lots of them on EBay, some even come with power supplies, might not hurt to upgrade that while I'm at it. Do you know anyone who has used the Leashine drives? Looks like a slightly cheaper alternative.

[SteveWill]

I have used three THB6064AH kits from MassMind.org store for the last 6 months. I have shorted wire and hand turned stepper with out blowing a driver. I even bought a spare driver chip thinking I would blow one but it did not happen. This is my first home made CNC router, so I have done all the dumb thing that a newbe can do. I am running 40V and 3.1 amps. I would buy again and I am please with the drives.


6064: 4AMP Stepper Motor Driver Kit. massmind

Here a little note from the MassMind.org site.

THB6064AH driver joins the other open source drivers supplied by the MassMind.org store, adding support for BiPolar motors up to 4 amps/phase at 50 volts.

It is based on the new THB6064AH chip (also known as the Toshiba TB6564AHQ^) which is a design improvement over the TB6560, adding support for better microstepping, lower resonance, and protection for power on sequence (which is a serious problem with the 6560).

[James Newton]

I have used three THB6064AH kits from MassMind.org store for the last 6 months. I have shorted wire and hand turned stepper with out blowing a driver. I even bought a spare driver chip thinking I would blow one but it did not happen. This is my first home made CNC router, so I have done all the dumb thing that a newbe can do. I am running 40V and 3.1 amps. I would buy again and I am please with the drives.
6064: 4AMP Stepper Motor Driver Kit. massmind

Thanks for the mention Steve!

AElliot, here is the skinny: The Geckos are unbeatable. However, for your motors, the THB6064AH will do well enough. AND... if you fry one, the cost of the replacement chip is just $10. And you soldered it on so replacing the chip is easy. Soldering isn't that difficult, there is a LONG boring video that walks you through the entire thing. And they are like half the cost. And, as Steve notes, they are really hard to kill.. It can be done, but you have to be tallanted.

Andrey used our driver on his massive concrete extruding 3D printer... the one he 3D Printed a castle with? And on a really hot day, driving them past their rated voltage, he managed to fry all 5 of the drivers he was using. Total replacement cost? $50. 5 driver, $10 per driver. And a couple hours with a soldering iron. All good, back up and running the next day.

Building it yourself has advantages, and the main one is: You know how to repair it.

[AElliott]

That's an intriguing option, and I'm no stranger to a soldering iron. It certainly is a cheaper repair bill in the event of another power surge. I'll get back to you, thanks guys.

[GTFreeFlyer]

I love my G540. I ordered it from CNCrouterparts.com. It came with resistors already installed and was pretty much plug and play. I had one issue where a small wire clipping found it's way into the case when I was assembling my CNC machine and it shorted something out. I am lucky enough to live walking distance from Gecko. I stopped by and the unit was replaced and upgraded on site while I waited 15 minutes in the lobby. You can't beat service like that!