Geckodrives vs others

[JAZZCNC]

Some great comments guys thanks for the replies.

It looks like the leadshine drives work out much cheaper too. For what its worth is it better to go for the 856 over the 556 (up to 80V)?

They also have these on the bay for around £60. Is there a fake drive market out there to be aware of or can I rest easy they will be ok?

Andy

Can only comment thru personal experience on the AM882 from Zapp
Zapp Automation Ltd - Stepper motors & Stepper Motor Drivers - Servo motors and Servo Motor Drivers - Ballscrews & linear motion products. : AM882 Digital driver with stall detect [AM882 Digital driver] - £98.40

80V and 8.2A so plenty of overhead for future expansion plus using lower powered motors the drive is no where near being taxed so life expectancy will be longer.

These drives are very very nice and if your thinking to slave motors then they have a very nice anti stall feature.?
Above 300rpm they attempt to avoid stalling but better than that for slaved motors is that if one of the motors does stall or lose position above the set tolerance level the drive can output a signal. Which if wired thru the E-stop system or into an input the control software monitors the slaved motors can be stopped almost instantly in a controlled manner so no damage or racking occurs.
Very very handy for slaved motors and works very much like a servo system would regards position loss. With steppers it's very rare for them to lose position or stall below 300rpm but above 300 and higher when torque is dropping then it's very common so this system is great improvement and nice safeguard for slaved Axis.

[Jonathan]

Definately get the 80V driver over 50V since the motor torque at high speed is roughly proportional to the applied voltage.

Can only comment thru personal experience on the AM882 from Zapp
Zapp Automation Ltd - Stepper motors & Stepper Motor Drivers - Servo motors and Servo Motor Drivers - Ballscrews & linear motion products. : AM882 Digital driver with stall detect [AM882 Digital driver] - £98.40

80V and 8.2A so plenty of overhead for future expansion plus using lower powered motors the drive is no where near being taxed so life expectancy will be longer.

Or if you're on a student budget:

New Leadshine AM882 Drive 80VDC 0.1A - 8.2 | eBay

Also I wouldn't bother with the 4Nm motors you mentioned since on your size machine they wont gain anything over the 3Nm motors from the same supplier, or Zapp. The 4Nm could even be worse.

Edit, missed this bit:

They also have these on the bay for around £60. Is there a fake drive market out there to be aware of or can I rest easy they will be ok?

I recall Gary at Zapp saying there are fakes of leadshine drivers around. That doesn't necessarily mean they're no good though, so I'd be happy to try them. However my machine works perfectly well on PM752s, so there's no need for me to change stepper drivers. When I change the drivers it wont be steppers on the other end...

[JAZZCNC]

Or if you're on a student budget:

New Leadshine AM882 Drive 80VDC 0.1A - 8.2 | eBay

So £76.76 + 20% vat if/when customs have you plus the £10 rip off charge shipping company bends you over for. So 76.76 + 15.35 + 10 = £102 so what you saving.?

Then if like all electrical devices can suffer from and it's faulty it aint an easy exchange.?? . . . . . I love Ebay and cheap chinese bits but some times then just not worth the little saving.!! . . . Drives are one such thing I don't buy from china.!

[andy0202]

So £76.76 + 20% vat if/when customs have you plus the £10 rip off charge shipping company bends you over for. So 76.76 + 15.35 + 10 = £102 so what you saving.?

Then if like all electrical devices can suffer from and it's faulty it aint an easy exchange.?? . . . . . I love Ebay and cheap chinese bits but some times then just not worth the little saving.!! . . . Drives are one such thing I don't buy from china.!

It looks like there may be quite a market for a distributor of CNC components in the UK! Could anyone recommend a distributor of the leadshine drives within the UK? i.e. a safer/cheaper way of getting my hands on these drives?

[irving2008]

It looks like there may be quite a market for a distributor of CNC components in the UK! Could anyone recommend a distributor of the leadshine drives within the UK? i.e. a safer/cheaper way of getting my hands on these drives?

Zapp Automation

[JAZZCNC]

It looks like there may be quite a market for a distributor of CNC components in the UK! Could anyone recommend a distributor of the leadshine drives within the UK? i.e. a safer/cheaper way of getting my hands on these drives?

The link in my previous post will take you straight to the UK supplier and page for the drive I mentioned.

Edit: Opp's didn't see Irving said it already.? Good man.

[andy0202]

Thanks for the info guys,

With your help/suggestions I have decided on the Zapp Automation Ltd - Stepper motors & Stepper Motor Drivers - Servo motors and Servo Motor Drivers - Ballscrews & linear motion products. : AM882 Digital driver with stall detect [AM882 Digital driver] - £98.40

Seems like there is a few options for me to play around with!

Thanks again,
Andy