potential product

Hello, everyone,

I'm working with a local client who has a small milling machine
with Gecko 320 servo drives. I'm working on how to hook up the
drives to my Universal Stepper Controller to get the maximum usefulness
out of it, and was thinking it gets complicated enough that I might
want to make boards available to other Gecko 320 users.

Here are the features I'm looking at putting on it :

1. emergency stop interface to the Gecko fault signal, so it shuts
down all axes, spindle, coolant, etc. and informs the computer
of the E-stop. It would also have tally lights to remember which
axis was the one that caused the shutdown. There would be an
external connection for one or more E-stop switches on the machine,
and accept E-stop from the VFD or other source as well. (This is
already in my USC

2. E-stop control, or even DC power supply switching, to shut
down and brake the motors from computer control.

3. encoder relaying by use of opto-isolators from the Gecko drives to
the computer, so that EMC becomes a DRO when you hit e-stop.
The coordinate system would be preserved, so that when you
came out of e-stop, the same coordinate reference would be there.

Most of this functionality should work with other step/direction interface
systems, too, so you wouldn't have to use it with my USC board, only.

I'm thinking this board should be able to go for $50 - 75, since there isn't
all that much on it. What do you pwople think about such a product?
Would you want one?

I'm also thinking about making kits and complete servo driver systems,
including power supply, 3 or 4 Gecko 320's, my USC board and the
board described above, with heat sinks, fans, connector panel, etc.
I don't have a real good feel for what that should cost, though.

Jon