Need help wiring drivers

I'm not good at electronics, so this is probably a dumb question.

I have been running one Gecko driver to test/run one motor on my unfinished machine. I have now reached the point where i want to run all three motors. I wired three geckos and three motors. OK, everything is wired except the "Common" or "+5Volt" on the drives for the Opto Isolators. Question is where do I get +5Volts from? Where would I wire the ground to the +5Volts? Before I was just getting it from a Hi pin on the parrallel port, but this don't seem to be working with 3 drives.

Help me before I make smoke....

Thank You

InventIt,

What controller are you using? Breakout board?

Mike

No breakout board. Trying to wire parrallel cable directly to Gecko 201.

Hi,

I'm not sure if you can use the 5V from the parallel port, but if you get a Y connector for hard drive power cable in the PC, you can use the red and black wires for 5V (red) and ground (black)

My first controller/drive box was built in an old computer case, so I left the power supply in it and used the 5V for the drives, and the 12V to power my breakout board and relay coils.

Computer power supplies are pretty standard for colour codes. Yellow is +12V red is +5V and black is ground.

Steve

LPT port current is about 15 mA in general and as a rule of thumb is unable to drive anything without help from buffers (for example 7414) or darlingtons (for example UCN2803).

If you wire to the lpt port you are in risk to blow it, so if you want to try better install a second lpt card (about 15$) to experiment...

Hope it helps
/U

Could I simply use the +5V directly from the Computer Power supply? Wire this directly to the Gecko drives? Do I need to connect the ground from the power supply or would it make a complete curcuit through the parrallel port? And if so where would I connect the ground wire to? Is that safe?

Should just get a breakout board? Any suggestions on which one to buy?

Thank You, I Appreciate the help

Well, I'm a bit confused too.. I've read the gecko manuals and there says, just under the explanation of (TERM10) :

---
These inputs are meant to be driven by standard TTL logic or other driver capable of sinking 16 mA of current. The minimum logic
“0” time is .5 uS while the minimum logic “1” time is 4 uS. Microstepping occurs on the falling edge of the step input.
---

For me, this is equivalent to attach directly to the LPT port, so in my prior post I have opened my mouth before starting my brain..

Inventit, I think your best bet is to make use of the good reputation of the guy that sells the geckos and ask him directly by email. That will no leave place for the dude.

Sorry and hope it helps

/U

Hi,

If you use the 5V from the computer power supply you can use any black wire from the computer as ground, they are all connected to the same place in the power supply. If you want to use a breakout board, the Axxus board works great, I have one and am very happy with it.

Steve

I wouldn't recommend using the LPT port directly if it calls for sinking 16ma. By the timing involved the input must have a pretty good filter on it, and since the sink current is specified, my guess is it has a passive pullup resistor to 5v. If the driver has power do you measure on the input lines 5v with a volt meter? i.e. the low of the meter on ground and the positive lead on the input no connected to anything. If you do, you need an open collector driver to act as a buffer, which would be good design.