G540 - WOW!

[LaserImage]

I have been using a Mechatronics 3 axis board for about 5 months. I have had nothing but problems with it from day 1. I was always losing steps and the motors were slow, 35-40 ipm. Finally, I couldn't slow down the Y axis enough to keep from losing steps and ruined 14 out of 35 pieces for a new customer. I replaced them so they won't even know, but that ate up a lot of my profit.

I had thought about Keling or Gecko drives from the start but didn't want to spend the money to replace a board that I thought was going to work out ok. Boy do I wish I would have done this a long time ago!

I installed the 540 yesterday, with a bit of help from Mariss, and did some testing today. Using the same 24volt power supply I have gone from 35-40 ipm to 130 ipm! I just finished running a pretty lengthy test, just a zig-zag pattern that exercises all three axes and this thing didn't miss a beat! I was cutting with a 90 degree V bit 1/8" into redwood at 100 ipm - it could have gone faster but I didn't notice that Vcarve Pro defaults to 100 ipm and it wasn't worth going back to change it and run again...

At just over $300 it's a bit pricey, but the time and money I have lost messing around with the other drive would have paid for the Gecko several times.

If you ask yourself if it's worth it to spend a bit more - the answer is absolutely YES!

Gary

[jemmyell]

Hi ,if you think it's something on 24V, try a 48V power supply!

http://www.bgmicro.com/index.asp?Pag...D&ProdID=10928

$24.95 for a 5 amp switcher.

BE SURE to measure the output voltage and adjust it to stay within G540 specs.

-James

[Crevice Reamer]

That would be a nice PSU for a small lathe. The 5 amp output would be JUST enough to drive two 3.5A motors. For a small mill, and 4th axis, you would need to buy 2 of these. At the price of 2, it might be better to get the Keling 48V 7.3A PSU.

CR.

[LaserImage]

I actually have a 48 v, 6.5 a psu that I bought to go with the G540. When I talked to Mariss he recommended trying the 24 v first. He said all the 48 v would give me is hotter motors, but no increase in performance.

If I'm getting 130ipm, the max I can set with 45khz, then what would 48v get me?

Thanks,
Gary

[ger21]

Originally Posted by LaserImage If I'm getting 130ipm, the max I can set with 45khz, then what would 48v get me? Thanks, Gary

if you can get mach3 to run at 100Khz, you might see 200ipm.

[LaserImage]

Originally Posted by ger21 if you can get mach3 to run at 100Khz, you might see 200ipm.

If my compter would run mach at 100Khz I would be amazed! Actually, 200ipm wouldn't really buy me much. Most of the test cuts I have been making are at 100ipm and 120ipm, 120 isn't as clean so I am sure 200 would only be worse. Also, since my machine is only 18" x 36", 200ipm wouldn't really save me much time. When I build my next machine, 48"+ x 96"+, then 200ipm will be important!

Thanks,
Gary

[dmauch]

The other advantages of the G540 is that they are almost burn out proof. I recently ran into a problem with a system that I had just built for a customer.
The G540 would run a program for about 1300 lines of code and the fault. It did not fault at the same place everytime. I double checked everything and everything was as it should be. I called Mariss and told him the problems I was having and he mentioned amoung other things was that I might have a bad motor. Even though it was brand new. I really doubted this could be the problem because if it was internally shorted sure it would fault right away. Well after trying everything else I changed out the motors one at a time and reran the program. On the Z axis motor change out the ;problem went away and hasn;t returned until I reinstalled the bad motor. Sure enough it faulted again this time at line 4100. I called Mariss again and told him of the solution that he gave me worked but what could be the problem. I have installed over a thousand motors and never saw anything like that. Mariss explained that it was one in 10,000 occurrrences where the motor had an intermittent short.
The G 540 faulted everytime with that bad motor. If that had been any other driver without short circuit protection it would have caused a blown driver.
So not only do you have a better performing driver but you also have something that will not easily burn out.


Dan Mauch
Camtronics Inc.

Originally Posted by LaserImage I have been using a Mechatronics 3 axis board for about 5 months. I have had nothing but problems with it from day 1. I was always losing steps and the motors were slow, 35-40 ipm. Finally, I couldn't slow down the Y axis enough to keep from losing steps and ruined 14 out of 35 pieces for a new customer. I replaced them so they won't even know, but that ate up a lot of my profit. I had thought about Keling or Gecko drives from the start but didn't want to spend the money to replace a board that I thought was going to work out ok. Boy do I wish I would have done this a long time ago! I installed the 540 yesterday, with a bit of help from Mariss, and did some testing today. Using the same 24volt power supply I have gone from 35-40 ipm to 130 ipm! I just finished running a pretty lengthy test, just a zig-zag pattern that exercises all three axes and this thing didn't miss a beat! I was cutting with a 90 degree V bit 1/8" into redwood at 100 ipm - it could have gone faster but I didn't notice that Vcarve Pro defaults to 100 ipm and it wasn't worth going back to change it and run again... At just over $300 it's a bit pricey, but the time and money I have lost messing around with the other drive would have paid for the Gecko several times. If you ask yourself if it's worth it to spend a bit more - the answer is absolutely YES! Gary