will mach3 work with gecko drives

[derkiow]

hello forum
I am either going to buy gecko drives g201's or motion control drive msd 980 will these drives work with mach 2 or 3 ... all the best derkiow

[kdoney]

Geckos work well with Mach 3. Not sure of the other. Gecko will soon have the G-REX which will run under Mach 4.

[derkiow]

what is g-rex? I have just download a demo of the mach site mach2r6.11p I am reading through the pdf file that comes with it ,before installing the demo ,would g-rex be on this version? As I am starting form very basic knowledge of cnc , learnt at college several decades ago . If i go with gecko drives , mach cam software i just need a cad programme to with them or will the mach software do some cad functions .

[JavaDog]

Originally Posted by kdoney Geckos work well with Mach 3. Not sure of the other. Gecko will soon have the G-REX which will run under Mach 4.

Mach4 will still work fine with the older Gecko drives too, right?

[ger21]

Originally Posted by JavaDog Mach4 will still work fine with the older Gecko drives too, right?

Mach4 will not use the parallel port. It sends all the info to the G-Rex via ethernet. The G-rex actually outputs the step and direction signals, which will work with any step and direction drives. So yes, it will work with older Geckos.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by derkiow what is g-rex? I have just download a demo of the mach site mach2r6.11p I am reading through the pdf file that comes with it ,before installing the demo ,would g-rex be on this version? As I am starting form very basic knowledge of cnc , learnt at college several decades ago . If i go with gecko drives , mach cam software i just need a cad programme to with them or will the mach software do some cad functions .

If you have a 1Ghz or faster PC, you should try using Mach3 1.84. It has a lot more features than Mach2.

Mach2/3 are not CAD or CAM programs. They do have .dxf conversion capability, currently moving to the LazyCAM program which you can download from the website. It also comes with some free wizards, which will let you do some basic pocketing and hole drilling, as well as quite a few other things without a CAD program. If you want to do more complicated 2 1/2D parts, then you will need an inexpensive CAD program. Or even try the free A9CAD at www.a9tech.com

The G-rex is a hardware motion controller that will be controlled by Mach4 when it's released. With Mach2/3, step and direction signals are sent through the parallel port at a maximum speed of 45,000 steps/second. The G-Rex can output steps at a rate of 4,000,000 steps/second. It also has 16 outputs, 22 inputs, as well as encoder inputs and a few analog inputs and outputs as well.

[vwdevotee]

Originally Posted by ger21 Mach4 will not use the parallel port. It sends all the info to the G-Rex via ethernet. The G-rex actually outputs the step and direction signals, which will work with any step and direction drives. So yes, it will work with older Geckos.

So then for my project I will needMach 3, a G-Rex G100, and 5 G201 drivers? I thought from reading the description of the G100 that it could control the steppers directly.

[GaryCorlew]

Yes but you will also need the g100 plug in, And the g202's offer short circuit protection, well worth the extra 20.00. The g100 controls the stepper drivers not the stepper motors. I saw your other thread about the 5 axis machine, in my opinion you should really consider servo motors becuae of the size your going for.

[vwdevotee]

Originally Posted by GaryCorlew Yes but you will also need the g100 plug in, And the g202's offer short circuit protection, well worth the extra 20.00. The g100 controls the stepper drivers not the stepper motors. I saw your other thread about the 5 axis machine, in my opinion you should really consider servo motors becuae of the size your going for.

What advantage would going to the G203s offer? I noticed that the featrure list is a lot longer, but I'm not sure what most of the features do (I'm an M.E., not and E.E.).

[ger21]

The G203 is supposedly unkillable. Supposedly, there is no way to damage it due to any type of miswiring, overvoltage....

[Dan Mauch]

Yes the gecko drives work great with mach3
See the video
Video of Mach running the G203 Vampires on MY mill drill that I said I would post
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...43805663907424

Dan Mauch
Camtronics-cnc Inc
www.camtronics-cnc.com
low cost stepper and servo motors recommended by Mariss at Geckodrive
assembled and tested G201,G203, G320 and G340 systems.
$100 off the retail price of my G201 system

[Ed_R]

The G203s sounds great. I just bought one of Dan's controllers, it ought to be here today, and I already want to upgrade it with a G-Rex 100 !
( Dan, got a retro-fit kit ready yet? )