Quote from Marcus at Gecko on cnczone: Just letting you guys know we are running our annual "Customer Appreciation Sale" right now until August 23rd, 2009. This means that all motor controls are on sale for the 100 piece price in single quantities and even more discounted in higher quantities. You can go to the product page here to see all of the prices: http://www.geckodrive.com/products.aspx?n=698865
Too bad I already have mine, of course now I can't afford a MKII since my car died and I had to buy another one. Well come Christmas time and I'll have one with geckos in it.
Timing was everything! My Easy CNC controller rolled over and died finally, so I ordered a GS 540 for $210. It has idle current limit which is a real plus to keep the steppers from getting hot while sitting idle. I was getting tired of loose chips in the Easy CNC board anyway. Glad to see it gone. I frequently would start loosing steps because the chips worked loose from vibration. Now my box is finally rid of everything from Easy CNC. Hurray! By the way, in case you didn't know, the round stepper motors used by Easy CNC are not recommended for use at all by Gecko. Apparently the round stepper motors use rare earth magnets which lose their magnatism over time. Because most of these were manufactured in the 1980's and before, they have already lost a substantial amount of magnetiszation. Square steppers use permanent magnets however, and provide much higher torque than their round brethren. This was published in the FAQ section from Gecko.
$210? ahh if I had only waited... That's the same price as 3 G250's and heatsinks after shipping when I got them... O well... The only reason I didn't get a 540 is because I didn't want to pay $300 + and have a 4th axis I wouldn't be using. :roll: