There's the rub, If at any time one of the drives fail, having everything on one board means a wait for repair or a new board. Having separate drives means if one fails I can replace with a spare in about 10 minutes. (Having the foresite to purchase a spare just in case) with Gecko's I'll probably never need it.

I wish you good luck.

Same comments as the others - BUT if you are in UK have a look at the drives on Arc Euro Trade.

With the plumeting pound, Geckos are now expensive, and at the recent Midlands engineering exhibition there was opinion that the Arc drives are as good as Gheckos, but also have better inbuilt safety protection.

I have two Gheckos and a 2.5amp one for the Z drive. I am giong to replace the Z and will probably try the Arc Euro Trade.

Thanks jimpinder I will have a look. I am going to have words on a "fit for purpose" basis with the supplier this morning and see if he has an alternative to offer as a replacement. I can see me having lots of trouble with the "standard" drive that came with the machine and feel he should replace it with something that is up to the job. The first drive was faulty from day one and the second only actually ran for around nine hours over three days before giving up.

The drives that Arc Euro sell are the ones I referred to earlier, they do seem to work well as I have them on the coil winder but they are just not quite as good as the Geckos in my opinion, not far behind though. They are however about 4 times the size of the geckos, a lot of that is heatsink.
Hood

Have had major problem with Marchant Dice as have many others it seems. Not yet seen anyone with a good word for these guys.

Mode of operation appears to be:-
1. Very co-operative up until they have your money.
2. Zero communication thereafter.
3. They may or may not supply but if they do, only when they get around to it (or you advise you will be taking steps to get your funds returned in which case they ship late but still don't advise you so you go and get something else and end up with a problem as they shipped the goods and still expect to get paid even though they are so late you don't have any use for their stuff anymore!
4. Quality unacceptable.

End of rant from a frustrated and p***ed of purchaser!

Hi tech.tron. I waited over a month for my machine even though the money was taken from my account the day I ordered it. I have just fixed the problem myself by opening up the control box and noticing that both the terminal blocks that carry the Z axis wires had not been fitted correctly and clipped in place. As soon as I fitted them right the machine worked just fine again. I have to admit that the machine they supplied seems excellent except for this fault. The control boxes are not assembled by them so I guess it was just one of those things.