hello,

firstly thankyou to anybody willing to read my post and reply!

i am basically new to everything to do with mach3, g-rex, electrics, etc.

i run a cnc at work so i have the framework knowledge of how they work and how to program them etc.

ive been building myself a cnc mill for a while now and all of this is fine no problems there

however...

i have been looking at the g rex g100?

am i correct in thinking that this will power all of my motors from the g100 board and also give me inputs and outputs for my machine eg limit switches, homing switches. ive been trying to do my homework on these things but to find one that is fully explained is impossible.

if i got the g100 can i simply plug it into my laptop via usb or eithernet plug my motors into that and all my inputs and outputs set them up in mach 3 and im done or will i need extra motor dirvers to power the motors?

like i said im very new to all of this its alien to me and all the reviews i read say there rubbish at milling and miss steps etc but there so highly rated!

i currently have a breakout board and 3 stepper drivers from routoutcnc.com but it runs through the printer port and i want my machine to run through usb or ethernet as the laptop has no printer port.

basically a run down of what i want to know is

is the g100 good for milling machines cutting 3d shapes etc like a cnc mill would do in industry

do i need anything else other than the g100 to get it up and running?

does the g100 mess up as its £200+ and i dont want to spend it to see its not what i want

thankyou for your time

mark

is the g100 good for milling machines cutting 3d shapes etc like a cnc mill would do in industry

I think you would be much better off with a Smooth Stepper. At this point the G100 is what it is. There is not going to be any further development on it.

http://www.warp9td.com/index.php

do i need anything else other than the g100 to get it up and running?

You will still need the drives and power supply for your motors. The G100 will send the pulses to the drives but won't actually drive the motors.

You can look at the G100 Set Up Guide in the docs section of this forum the help answer some of your questions. I highly suggest you look at the Smooth Stepper though.

Brett

is the smooth stepper a full unit or will you still need separate drives for the motors?

im really useless with all this stuff so far i got my motor to move with the routoutcnc stepper driver but its a printer port i want a simple one board that does everything via usb if possible is this what the smooth stepper is?

The smooth stepper is a USB device that imulates 2 printer ports and all there I/O with some encoder pins and capability to pulse at 5MHz to boot. You will still need the drives and power supply. Have a look at the Warp 9 link I posted in my last reply.

Brett

i had a look at that and it still looks alien

do you run the smooth stepper?
would you recommend it if you do?

also what is the best driver to run the motors from?

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=searchProducts&searchTerm=5350439

thats the motors im running?

ok if i get the smooth stepper this will give me the same ability as i have now but through usb?

so i plug my breakout board onto this then from there wire up my drivers?

am i getting somewhere here?

this is the motor controllers i have

http://www.routoutcnc.com/RoutoutStepper.htm

i want my machine to move smoothly and accurately ( dont we all )

its a tiny project and has cost me a small fortune so far so i want it to be as good as pssible

are geckodrives good motor controllers and do they ship to the uk?

im kind of limited as everything good in the world the uk will get it years after everyone else!!!!!!!

I have run the smooth stepper during beta testing and have many friends running it now. One of them is using my Beta board daily is is very pleased. I was very Happy during beta testing and will soon be using another on a machine i'm retrofitting now. Yes, I recommend it. Before buying one go to their forum and ask any questions you have regarding limitations or concerns and do some searches for relevant topics.

The Gecko 201s and the 203v seam to be fine. I use 201s and like them a lot. If you allready have drives from routout cnc, they may work just fine.

Brett

to start with i just simply want my x,y,z axis to move fast and smoothly

the imputs i want are home x,y,z limits on all slides and an estop

from there i will learn bits and bobs until i know more

for now i want a fast smooth cnc to learn with without mis steps and slow moving motors

The Smooth stepper will give you fast smooth motion but how fast you can go and accel with out skipping steps will be largley dependant on your design and motor capability. The smooth stepper is great but can't turn a Pinto into a Corvette.    Unless of course the pinto has a huge motor and a governor. In that case the SS would take the governor off. LOL

Brett

haha i just dont want it to go at snails pace

couple more questions to you chaoticone

do you have any pics, videos of your machines running with the smooth stepper and a pic of the set up you have with your geckos and the ss please or if you already have uploaded them a link would be great

and...

how do you know when your machine misses steps will it mess up the final design or can you hear it? like i said im new to all of this and kind of want to know all the faults before i go and make them myself as im very close to putting the motors onto my first slide setups

fingers crossed it all works never used steppers linear motion or timing belts before!!!!!

will be smiling if it does work!!!!

thanks so far youve been a great help to me

Here are a couple of links to some videos,

My Beta Board  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaG3pd8xuWw&NR=1

Another on the SS  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbqqFjPL1c

Some Pics

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,2994.10.html

Not finished in those but I'll try to grab some later today.

how do you know when your machine misses steps will it mess up the final design or can you hear it?

Most of the time you will hear it if it misses steps. The toolpath will not be true if this happens. You could use dual shaft steppers and put encoders on them and get a board from Ron Rogers of Rogers Machine. It will fault if the deveation is too great. I don't know if anyone is using it with the SS though. Might want to research that a little first. Also could use servos that will fault if out of posotion with some drives. Getting the right combination of motors and gearing can be a challenge. All systems should have 100% saftey factor designed in. Meaning the motors, drives, ect. can produce twice as much power as will ever be needed in any given situation. Of course, none of us do that. We all get as much as possible out of them. You'll just have to find your comfort zone as far as that goes.

Brett