G540 and Nema 17

[Walky]

Yeah, as silly and extremely overkill as it sound, I'm wondering if the Gecko would be ok to drive Nema 17 motors. Most specifically, I'd like to know what is the minimum current the G540 can provide, and if you think there's any technical reason why it wouldn't work ok with these motors. IIRC the motors are 1.2A or 1.5A bipolar (4-wire), and came with a controler box with a 24V psu. Can't remember more details about it since I don't have the machine here at this moment.



Now... why?

I got a small "2016" cnc machine some time ago (think of it as a Sable 2015, it's almost the same), which cost me a huge amount of money after shipping and customs, and it happened to have a defective driver which rendered it unusable. Seller won't answer any of my messages (why doesn't it surprise me?). I got the machine with the intention to test and calibrate it, build a nice enclosure and then sell it. Now I need to make it work in order to sell it, and I want it to last. I just want the machine to work, and to do it reliably; I don't want to make it go faster, I just want to finally be able to sell it soon so I can finally get that money back since each time I see at this machine I feel like crap.



Right now I have a few options on my mind:


Gecko G540: Extremely overkill, but safe and "ready to go" (saves me a lot of time and trouble, and I'd already wasted a lot of time with this problem).

Probotix Sidestep: I've had extremely good experiences with the Probostep drivers and Probotix's customer support, so the Sidestep are probably fine, but the cost is still high (mostly because shipping and customs, and I've had to pay customs for every single Probotix box I've received). It's not "ready to go" so it'd make me lose even more time, and I don't want that.

Easy-CNC "Mechatronics" 3 axis driver: Price is nice and it's all on the same board. According to some people on this forum this driver works fine, but the few people who seem to have gotten a faulty driver reported being unable to contact the seller afterwards. I really don't want to go through that kind of thing again. Some people have complained about delays in shipping, too.


I do not want to buy that cheap chinese TB6560 crap that's all over Ebay, that's for sure.


I hope you can help me.

Thanks

[ger21]

Website says 0 to 3.5amps, so they should work fine.

[Walky]

Thanks! I don't know how I missed it while browsing the pdf manual, but missing it on the website description was too much!

So, I can use ANY bipolar (or hybrid) stepper motor within this current/voltage range with the G540 regardless if it is a cd-rom drive mini stepper or a Nema 32 monster?.

[MrWild]

yes

[Mariss Freimanis]

NEMA-17 motors will work just fine. Don't use more than 24VDC for the power supply to avoid overheating this size motor. Vexta PK245 motors work particularly well and are very smooth.

Mariss