Gecko G540 or?

[Tumblebeer]

I'll start with reiterating the same advice pretty much everyone that has built something gives others: Buying cheap stuff usually ends up costing more than buying more expensive stuff. I know, you've heard it before. Yet everyone, including me, think themselves above this one fundamental rule. I'm not. You're not. No one is.

I started buying http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-4-phase-Ne...item3f1fba0066 together with mid range inductance 3nm steppers. I used a 36V powersupply.

When I built a new machine, I added another stepper, for the dual x-axis setup. This time (putting the new stepper on the y-axis), I went for a http://www.cnc4you.co.uk/index.php?r...product_id=362 together with an am882 from aliexpress.

Right now, I'm about to throw the old drivers in the trash and get 3 more am882's. The difference is huge between them. I mean really huge.
I haven't tried the geckos, but from what I've heard people are quite pleased with them. However, I haven't heard of anyone driving a slightly binding, quite heavy carriage at 15000mm/min at only 36 volts. My leadshine driver can do that. Also, I've seen a version called am882h, that takes ac input. No idea if it's any good, but it should make the power supply slightly cheaper and simpler.

As for using a motion controller, I'd recommend getting one. It'll make everything so much easier. You get smoother and faster motors from the clean pulses, you can use a modern computer (even a laptop) to run the machine, you can use a 100m long ethernet cable instead of a 1.8m parallell cable. Less than an hour ago, I added a crosshair laser to my machine, took me 30 seconds to hook it up to one of the relays on my plcm-e4 and I could control it from mach3. Doing that from a printer port would require an expensive bob, and you'd still be limited in the amount of pins on your db25.

I realise I'm rambling a bit here, but perhaps I got my point across. Get a motion controller, get digital drives. If you want to go my route, I'd say buy
4x http://www.cnc4you.co.uk/index.php?r...product_id=362
4x http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREES...820280286.html
(or http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREE-...347654950.html)
1x plcm-e4 http://www.purelogic.ru/shop/elektro...i_ethernetusb/

and either build a toroidal linear psu (should be slightly better) or buy a 70-72vdc switched psu with some overhead (should be good enough, cheaper and easier).