G201X Digital Stepper Motor Driver

These fixed all my problems on my medium budget cnc mill/router build. To start out, I bought the cheap sainsmart mach3 BOB ($70 amazon), along with the cheapest 36v power supply I could find. In the beginning I was using the HY 5a drivers to push some 4.2a 425oz steppers ($36 amazon) but they had an inclination to stall at around 600rpm which is normal for a stepper motor. The real problem I had with the other drivers is that they have a lot of resonance, especially at slow feedrates. After a little research I learned that the vibrations made by a stepper rob it of torque so I started looking for solutions. These advertise antiresonance or vibration so I decided to give these a shot, not expecting to keep them since they cost 5x as much as import drivers. In fact, when I discovered that these are fixed x10 microstepping I almost returned them without installing them, but I'm glad I tried them out. My first concern was being fixed x10 microstepping that they may stall at lower rpms but these are capable of running at over 2x the speed of my other drivers since they morph to full step and I was able to increase my acceleration from 15 to 20. Furthermore, the steppers sound completely different, smooth as glass, even at the slowest of feedrates. For $300 I was able to takes my $1000 DIY build from a choppy but functional piece of equipment to something that runs as almost as smooth as my $20,000 CNC Plasma table. If you are doing a build and researching 2 phase steppers, look no further because if you do you will end up with something mediocre.

I ordered 3 of these, and upon opening them up to mount heatsinks, I found some MOSFETs that got hot (to me they looked cooked). I contacted Gecko directly about this since the return window through amazon had closed and got a reply the next day. I met with Marcus at geckodrive and he tested the drivers I received and said they were ok. He describes the color variance as oxidation and differences based on the various manufacturers they order through, I'm not an electrical engineer but I still think they look like they get a little too hot during what he describes as reflow. Either way he took the time to meet with me even though I didn't order through Gecko but an amazon reseller. In the realm of an industrial supplier some shmoe buying 3 units is totally insignificant so I really appreciate that. He also pointed out that when I drilled the backing plates to mount CPU heatsinks I inadvertently shorted 1 MOSFET per driver to ground so he replaced all 3 units even though he was eating my mistake. I have to give Geckodrive 5 stars for going out of their way for me. Good business.

The micro switch settings make it easy to set up.

This is my forth and fifth unit. Never had issues with any of them and they work great.

Very nice drive, works good with old 201's