Ok.... I like the Gecko G540, but...

[Bob La Londe]

I've got a couple machines running G540s off a parrallel port and with a lot of tweaking I can run 9-30 hour jobs now. I like the G540s a lot, but I am working on a new machine design that is going to take six steppers. Given how much I had to do to get good reliability out of one parralel port and G540 I'm not confident in running two parrallel ports.

Its my understanding that the Smoothstepper takes a lot of the load off the computer reducing a lot of the headaches I dealt with and provides the equivelant of 2 LPT ports.

Would it be possible/practical to use a Smooth Stepper to drive two G540s and just used the XYZ ports on each G540? Would a different stepper driver be better.

The steppers will be linked in pairs, but two of the pairs will be unlinked during zeroing. (yes its a multiple spindle machine)

[Bob La Londe]

Nevermind. Since the G540 is a breakoutboard and 4 G250 drivers it doesn't make any sense. I'm planning it around a CNC4PC C25 breakout board and 6 G251X drivers witht he Smoothstepper instead. It will actually cost less and there is no question about being able to configure it.