best stepper driver???????

**Lee Roberts** · 24-03-2013

The Zones are for postage.

.Me

**dudz** · 24-03-2013

Are there no reliable "all in ones" ?... It just seems alot of accessories just for one job.

I can solder and repair boards at a push, but I'd rather just plug it into my pc/cnc , turn it on, and use it without all the whistles and bells. Maybe I am just lazy ?

**John S** · 24-03-2013

Only all in 1 is the Gecko 540

G540 4-Axis Motor Control

Unfortunately what with taxes etc it doesn't come cheap
Gecko will not sell direct to you as they have a UK agent, Charter controls who's web site is down at the moment.
You can but off Ebay.com for about £190 plus £30 shipping but expect to get hit for about £40 duty on top of this.

You can connect a lot of wires for this price plus if it does go wrong you are faced with shipping it back etc.

Separate units are far better

**dudz** · 24-03-2013

The "all in one" that I had was fine for about 3 months. We have power surges here every week and I think this is what fryed it.http://www.easy-cnc.com/3axisdriver.html

The one that you mentioned.... Is it likely to go wrong if wired correctly ?

I was going to buy this one ; CNC Router DIY Kit 5 Axis Breakout Board + 3x M542H Stepper Motor Driver 1A-4.5A | eBay

If it is compatible with my motors and PSU. Seems simple enough, and in cases

**John S** · 24-03-2013

Originally Posted by dudz

I was going to buy this one ; CNC Router DIY Kit 5 Axis Breakout Board + 3x M542H Stepper Motor Driver 1A-4.5A | eBay

If it is compatible with my motors and PSU. Seems simple enough, and in cases

You are just buying what I posted to but you are prepared to pay £149.82 for it.

However if you buy three of the drivers i linked to [ which are exactly the same ] for £24.76 = £ 74.28 and this breakout board and lead

Upgraded 5 Axis CNC Breakout Board Stepper Motor Driver + 5V USB Cable + Mach3 | eBay

Look familiar ?

For £10.99 you will have spent £85.27 to get the same thing.

However if you insist on spending more then send me £140 and I'll bung 3 drivers, a lead and the breakout board in the post first thing tomorrow.

I don't mind and you get to save £9.82

**Lee Roberts** · 24-03-2013

John i have a question for you if you will.

A member who i dont think is around anymore once said to me that, if a motor is rated at 3a per phase that you only need to make an allowance for this of about 50% because the motor is unlikely to ever require its full amps rating, I think he did say its posable but you would have to be seriously working the motor for that and its just not likely.

Is that true?, also dose a motor draw more current when its doing rapids vs when the machine is cutting into stuff or dose it draw a steady amount consistently through all operations?

Thanks.

**John S** · 24-03-2013

Lee the accepted figure is 2/3 for a parallel wired motor and 1/3 for a series wired motor.
These are figures that Marriss Fremanis at gecko drive came up with and are repeated as law.

So a 3a motor in parallel take 2a and 1a in series.

However I have had clamp ammeters fitted to power supply leads and running a system under rapids and loads i have never seen these figures, they have always been far less.

In fact in many cases the figures have been very small, far smaller than I would have imagined so the 50% is a far more acceptable figure.

One machine I used to convert I used 650 VA transformers at 50 volt AC, in a cost cutting exercise, due to rising copper costs, I dropped to 500 VA and saw no difference, a drop to 400VA still didn't make a difference but going to 330 VA did,

So the drop from 650 VA to 400 VA halved the transformer cost.