Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Lloyd on November 09, 2013, 03:52:30 PM

Title: Is there a low cost alternative Digital Step Drive?
Post by: Lloyd on November 09, 2013, 03:52:30 PM

Is there a lower cost alternative Digital Step  drive that works like the Gecko G540?   I understand though you get what you pay for.  Thanks!

Title: Re: Is there a low cost alternative Digital Step Drive?
Post by: Picengraver on November 09, 2013, 04:27:07 PM

Lloyd,
Depending u[on your requirements, this one is hard to beat, if you know how to solder.  http://www.hobbycnc.com/
John Champlain

Title: Re: Is there a low cost alternative Digital Step Drive?
Post by: Jeff_Birt on November 09, 2013, 05:07:42 PM

There are several cheaper drives but none that offer the value for the money spent. Most other stepper drives use off the shelf stepper driver chips that offer only a fraction of the performance of the G250 drives inside the G540. Then if you add in all the ancillaries to get the same feature set: optical isolation, two high current relay drivers, VFD output, charge pump circuit you will spend almost as much money and get lower performance. I have a lot of customers who started with the cheaper boards and when they finally moved up to a G540 (because the cheaper board was not satisfactory or blew up) they are shocked by the performance difference.