[jerryrigge]

The machine is made by Practical CNC. It uses Pacific Scientific stepper motors models P22nrx ldf ns 00 and M22nrx. I think that they are 2.3 amp but not sure. Something on the motor reads "65 v" and I assume that cannot mean 65 volts. The damaged board has 3 Gecko units plugged into the board. Wow...the Geckos can be set from 24 to 80 volts so maybe the motors are 65 volts DC. The board has the name Practical CNC printed on it so I assume that it is propriotary. It uses a PCI card (7200 model) that connects to this driver board by means of a parallel cable. It came with a nice Windows based program that allows me to run g code and control the machine movement from Windows.

The driver board is dead due to a short circuit (my fault) and I do not want to depend on the manufactor for parts. The machne is only 3 months old.

I would prefer to use a parallel port connection so that I can use a notebook computer. It seems to me that generic components might be better than propriatory parts.

By the way...what are these Gecko units? Are they just relays for the main board? Other driver boards don't seem to use them?

Any comments appreciated.

JerryRigger