Combo breakout board and 3 axis driver

[KEJR]

Anyone see this before:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220845188600

It looks to be a 3 axis stepper breakout for Mach3 that can drive 3 steppers up to 6.5A. In theory the Allegro A3986 chip and some power MOSFETs are all that is needed so I can't see why this wouldn't work.

Its made in China, but so is the computer I'm using to write this email...

Any thoughts?
KEJR

[macona]

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

I used a similar board and "meh"

Best to go with individual discrete drives. That way if you do something and toast a drive it can be replaced a lot easier.

[KEJR]

Hi Macona,

Can you elaborate on your experience with the combo board and why you didn't like it?

As for replacement of the whole board vs. one drive, every connector on the thing is pluggable, so its a quick swap, and at the price listed its comparable to a single Gecko Drive.

Do you know of anyone actually using this particular board? I was actually going to design a board based on this chip but these guys beat me to it. I can't beat that design for $80.

Thanks,
KEJR