They are available but my search skills are failing tonight. The steppers on Triacs are good for about 60-70V, but I personally wouldn't run that high unless you were really wanting to maximise performance.Īdd a cheap breakout board from ebay for a tenner, then the only thing missing to get the same functionality is a step/dir to 0-10V adapter. That's assuming you want to stick to the 50V/5A max limit. You could buy 4 drives with similar tech/performance to the gecko G540 for about £190, or 4 digital drives with better performance for about £230. I wouldn't even consider the official UK distributor, as they won't leave you much change from £450. Then IIRC the import tax is 2.5%, then VAT on top of that, comes to just under £320, then depending on courier, you can add a £10-30 handling charge onto that). So say $340, at the current exact exchange rate is £259. The G540 is overpriced for what it is, as you can buy separate components for less money, especially since a G540 will cost you at least £330 ($299 + about $40 shipping.
The Gecko will do up to 3.5 Amp so there is room for extra torque too. The Gecko does 10x microstepping and is running at 48v 2.2A and the motors are ripping along quite nicely. I have new steppers ready to swap out but I am going to use the existing ones until I find a reason to change. I am however pleased that the Estop, axis limit switches and axis overide all remain functional once the ESR is connected to the Estop input on the Gecko. I will be adding a second breakout board to control the coolant pump and accept input from the spindle and axis overide pots. My only complaint of the G540 is that it is short of outputs and inputs. I was very worried about the spindle, I partially expected magic smoke and an explosion of some description when I switched the spindle on.
This is incorrect the Gecko pin is active high to activate the output that pulls the connection to ground and energises the relay. The Gecko has two outputs, these are currently linked to the Spindle Go Relay and the Spindle Reverse Relay, I had the SGR set to active low thinking that it needs to be grounded to activate the relay. Yes the Gecko G540 connects directly to the sprint drive and controls the spindle.