Please Help with geckodrive

[Biggermens]

I have 3 of them moters

2-Phase Bipolar Stepping Motors:
* High torque motor with max. holding torque 1,282 oz-in
* Step angle (full / half): 1.8 / 0.9 °
* Front Shaft only
* Phase current: 1.4 amps
* Rated voltage: 11 VDC
* Motor length: 5"

And every one tell me to get geckodrive now i dont no much about this stuff
1- do i need 1 or 3 of the geckodrive for a 3 axys machine ?
2- what kind of power suply do i need and ware to get it ?
3- can i conect my pc paralel port direct to the geckodrive ?
4- will it work with Mach 2 ?

Thanks a lot

[ger21]

1) you need 3

2) Here's where you might have a bit of a problem. Those motors have a very high voltage rating. Ideally, you'd want a motor with 2-6V rating, and higher current. Typically, you want to run 10x to 20x the rated voltage. The Geckos have an 80V max, so the best you could do would be about 7x. Most likely, these motors won't spin very fast. Most people build their own power supplies. You can get information at the Gecko website, under the White Papers section.

3) Yes, but it might be easier to use a breakout board which can supply power to the Geckos. Also some computers might HAVE to use a breakout board, if the parallel port voltage is too low.

4) Yes