CONTEST: G540 Redesign Ideas

[CoAMarcus]

We are in the process of updating the G540 based on feedback and are looking for ideas that you would like to see in a production version of the drive. What we are adding so far:

1.) Trimpot redesign: The trimpots are now through hole trimpots located on the motherboard instead of the SMT ones located on the drives. This required a modification of the G250 as well, which allows remote adjustment of the smoothness trimpot. This means that you can use any regular screwdriver to adjust the trimpot and don't have to be as careful.

2.) Filtered current set resistor: The current set resistor is now filtered, meaning the resistor can be placed on the motor end of the cable with no problems.

Those are the major additions. Now we need you to recommend what else we need to put on there. The contest is simple: If you are the first to mention an idea and it makes it into the production version of the drive, you win a free redesigned G540. The first one to mention the feature will get the drive, and there is no limit to what we will add (provided it can be done and fits on the motherboard).

We will base the added features on how badly they are wanted, so if someone mentions something you would like on the drive please say so! The contest will run until we have a finalized PCB layout that is sent off to our board house for a production run. We will post on here when the contest is over and will notify the winners through PM. All winners will be the first ones to receive the drives as soon as they come off of our production line.

Thanks, and I look forward to see what you have in mind!

Marcus Freimanis

[mklb]

Marcus,

How about adding a parallel port connector on the back of the drive as well as on the front.

Those of us who use a smooth stepper have to either mount the smooth stepper outside the same box as the G540, or run the ribbon cable from the inside to the outside to make the connection.

It's a small thing, but its the only thing I could think of.

Royce Bunnell
OB Cue Shafts and OB Cues

[ger21]

DIP switches for current setting instead of resistors.

[Pplug]

Screw holes on the back used to mount a heatsink would be great.

A 12 volt power outlet for a common computer dc fan would be a help as well. With the high powered steppers people are selling in kits, these modifications would make things much easier. I know they would have helped with my two installs!

A rs232 to rs485 convertor would be cool so we could run a vfd from modbus instead of the analog signal.

More negative power terminals and a ground would help cut down on the mess in back of my machines and help simplify wiring for noobs.

[doorknob]

Going beyond just screw holes for a heat sink, how about offering an optional heat sink?

Also, how about a remote-monitoring terminal (either via digital telemetry or analog signals) that would permit monitoring parameters such as ambient and drive/heatsink temperature, motor current and voltage, vfd voltage and current, all settable drive parameters and switch positions, charge pump operation, whether or not each drive is in standby, LED states, input states and/or voltages for EPO or limit/home switches, whether or not microstepping is in operation, drive serial number(s), step pulse frequency, and the like. If such a monitoring facility were made available, with a published interface (electrical as well as physical connector), then either a variety of standard Gecko remote monitoring devices or third-party devices or DIY devices could be used to view the health of the system in real time, from the machine or from the controlling PC, even if the G540 were mounted inside an electrical enclosure.

Also, how about an input for an optional MPG or pendant, with the ability to switch between DB-25 control from the PC and control from the pendant?

And how about an "accessory" +5 volt 1 amp output?

[poopy_pants]

More inputs. It seems most of the wiring done is a compromise to accommodate only 4 inputs. It would be nice to have home switches, limit switches, speed input and probing inputs all with dedicated ports versus running home switches in series and utilizing software limits.

I like the idea of an output relay for a coolant pump as well. Moving the inputs to the front of the drive would help me as well as relocating the parallel port to the back. I have my G540 flush mounted into the side of a desktop PC case so it would greatly help the in/out wiring mess and holes.

[xspyke]

How about labeling the screw type connector. It would be nice to know which terminal is the power, input, output ... You have done a great job on the front side of the unit.

I'm lazy, I don't want to print out the manual to wire up another output or input.

[P.Passuello]

Sometimes people want a 5th stepper motor for a rotary axis but because the parallel port pins are all allocated and unaccessible the 5th stepper cannot be added even though not all the parallel port pins are unused. Would it be possible to provide a port to attach an external Gecko drive.

On my machine I use the Y and A to drive the Y gantry. The software I use does not allow slaving of 2 outputs. The ideal solution is the ability to have some internal links within the G540 to drive bothe the Y and A drivers from the Y input (pins P4 & P5) and pass through Pins P8 & P9 to an external plug to drive the 5th stepper via an external driver, eg G201. This also eliminates the need for the PC to do the slave function and any possibility of lost steps due to PC's inability to output to both ports correctly.

Change the main terminal block to unplugable types.

I like all the ideas posted so far. The ones proposed by Gecko will be great to start. I also vote for the 12 volt output for a fan to cool the Gecko but instead of heatsink mounting holes I think mounting holes for 1 or 2 computer fans on the back of the unit to cool it. The fans could be screwed straight to the rear of the unit with washers for spacers to hold it off the back to allow air flow.

Cheers
Peter

[Andre' B]

How about an adaptor board that plugs in in place of 1 or more of the G250 boards.
The adaptor would pass the signals out so that one of your other drives could be plugged in. So a system could easily be built with say 2 or 3 smaller steppers and 1 big servo.

Liking the cooling fan power and mounting.

[Pplug]

A 50 or 48 volt 20 amp solid state relay prewired to an output pin or switched on and off like the charge pump feature would help people with spindle wiring and/or cooling.

Obviously the high current terminals would have to be beefy and the relay is quite large compared to the gecko 540 case.....

It was one of the first things I set up after the motors. I have one CNC router configured with 2 relays one for a router and one for a vacume. The other CNC machine uses the same type of relay to control a vfd!

Every machine I build uses the same type of relay for spindle or accessories.

[lovebugjunkie]

USB interface to replace the current rs 232 parallel interface or add USB interface in addition to current rs232 parallel interface. One more "or" release two versions of the G540 one USB, one rs232 parallel interface.

[762x51]

1) Change DB9’s to plug-able screw terminal connectors or as an alternative offer an accessory daughter board with mating DB9's with motor connections brought out to screw terminals.

2) Offer correct length mounting standoffs as an optional accessory.