G540 mounting ideas. Why is it designed like this?

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terbospaghetti
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G540 mounting ideas. Why is it designed like this?

Post by terbospaghetti »

I'm having trouble making sense of the way they designed the case, ports and mounts on the gecko g540.

I'm attempting to put all the components for cnc control of a lathe inside the same enclosure, as I assumed everyone would.

The problem is that the db25 port is designed to face outside the enclosure, by virtue of the mount hole locations. The whole unit looks like it was intended to mount flush-ish with the outside of an enclosure.
That puts the screw terminals neatly inside the enclosure, but leaves the db25 facing the world instead of inside the case with the acorn board and all of it's friends.

I have three possible solutions in mind:

1. Mount the g540 on very tall standoffs inside the enclosure and run jumpers to a pair of db9 connectors mounted in a punch-out. This seems like it would be the neatest from the outside, but add a few ribbon cable jumpers that would otherwise not be necessary. Probably no big deal, but they're more places for things to break. And there's the question of EMI within the enclosure, would the jumpers need to be shielded wire?

2. Mount the g540 as-intended, semi-flush with the outside of the enclosure, and run a jumper from the acorn's db25 to a db25 port mounted in a punch-out.
This seems like it would be perfectly functional, but look kinda bush-league. And again, it's more stuff to break.

3. Go full hillbilly and mount the g540 as intended, and just run the already-shielded cables through the punchouts. Kinda makes me cringe just picturing it, but it would introduce the fewest new failure points.

Dunno if anyone can help, but if you care to share your g540/acorn enclosure setups I'd love to steal your ideas! Thanks!!
GBCues
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Re: G540 mounting ideas. Why is it designed like this?

Post by GBCues »

Well, I'm not sure why you're questioning the design of GeckoDrive's G-540 here, but . . .
Years ago, Mach3 was the most popular CNC control software for DIY'ers. It sent pulse and direction signals out different pins on the parallel/printer port of a PC. The Gecko G-540 was designed by Maris Freeman the founder of GeckoDrives.com. That controller was designed to connect to the parallel (printer) port on a PC via a straight-through 25 pin cable. The PC would sit outside the control box (on most designs). The support for parallel ports was dropped by Microsoft/Windows and hence followed by PC makers. Along came other manufacturers like Warp9Tech with their Ethernet SmoothStepper and Centroid with their Acorn which continued to support the DB-25 (printer port/parallel port interface) of this popular CNC controller.
HTH
terbospaghetti
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Re: G540 mounting ideas. Why is it designed like this?

Post by terbospaghetti »

I'm not questioning the design per se, just trying to understand it. But your explanation was extremely expository, thank you!

My question remains tho, how do other DIY acorn folks handle this? Two separate enclosures?
martyscncgarage
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Re: G540 mounting ideas. Why is it designed like this?

Post by martyscncgarage »

Take a look at this. If I do G540 for a customer, I usually set it up in this manner. Most times they provide the cabinet and drive...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oZ1nhPADLC87AGsB8
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
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