After I did the first connector, I realized the heat shrink was probably overkill so I did not put it on the rest. I put a 1k Ohm and a 680Ohm resistor in series because I did not have the correct value for a single resistor. I soldered each motor wire in place and put heat shrink tubing over the solder joints. I started by installing the connectors onto the motor leads. The only draw back is that quick pin swap that is sometime necessary to get the right direction, but most software can take care of that. If it is moved around you always have the right setting. That has the nice feature of keeping the current setting with the motor.
![gecko cnc g540 gecko cnc g540](https://www.509maker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/G540-400x353.png)
The current for the motors is set via resistor on the connector. I am always afraid a wire is going to break at the terminal block or a stray wire strand is going touch something it is not supposed to. I actually prefer this to terminal blocks. The motors connect using solder cup 9 pin D connectors. The controller is rather small at 6.375 x 2.375 x 1.25. I have no trouble recommending him to anyone. He was very friendly guy and we chatted for about 30 minutes and he gave me a tour of the place. They are in the area so I decided to give them a visit. I found a good price at and found they had a “will call” option for delivery. It retails for $299, but you can usually find a street price of about $250. Therefore, I decided to give the G540 4 Axis Drive a try.
Gecko cnc g540 drivers#
I have had great luck with my Geckodrive G203V Stepper Drivers on my big 1200 oz/in motors for my router and those motors have a reputation of being tough to control. Some have horrible inconsistent motor noise even when stopped. Some are so bad they are vitually unusable at low speeds.
![gecko cnc g540 gecko cnc g540](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/81/b6/86/81b68602e39ad916d072646202c3b21d.jpg)
Some controllers have such bad resonance that the motors shake and jump and miss steps. What you really want is smooth running motors. A good controller is not all about current, voltage or step size. I tried a cheap Chinese Toshiba TB6560 based drive a while back and had a bad experience. I have some projects coming up that will need a fourth axis, so I needed to buy a 4 axis motor controller.