[zool]

On Monday ordered:

1. Gecko G540 and power supply

2. Soigeneris EZ-G540 [beats soldering and figuring resistors]

3. Soigeneris G540 Passive Heat Sink [easier than building mount for cooling fans]


Jeff Birt [Soigeneris.com] shipped items 2 and 3 Monday afternoon.

Paul Henrick [Deepgrove1] will probably ship G540 and power supply tomorrow [Wednesday].

Rockcliff kindly took back both their boards for inspection, and repair, if needed.

And while trying to figuring out which direction to go [other than around in a circle], I spent time cleaning and straightening up my studio. Seeing all that clean floor space is odd .. I am not sure seeing a lot of clean floor space is healthy.

[zool]

Received:

Soigeneris EZ-G540 [beats soldering and figuring resistors]

Soigeneris G540 Passive Heat Sink [easier than building mount for cooling fans]

Look better in person; good quality, and fit and finish.

[zool]

Brace for long Y-axis has been designed by TuslaTurbo. Will be cut and shipped soon.

[zool]

Purchased Gecko G540.

Purchased EZ-G540 - Set of 4

Everything is soldered and wired. Checked and doubled checked.

Followed Gecko G540 installation instructions step-by-step.

Got green light on G540 without parallel port cable hooked up.

Reconfigured MACH3 [latest release]

Slaved Axis is set for Y and A to be slaved.

Still the same problem!; that is: The Y/A motors function as before; that is: When using MACH jog screen to move in positive direction [away from home], they are in synch. When moving in negative direction [toward home] the Y motor moves in negative direction, the A motor moves in positive direction.

Tried different cable. No dice.

Tried all three parallel ports. No dice.

Tried every combination of checks in the boxes on Ports and Pin screen and on Homing/Limits screen for the Y motor and A motor. No dice.

The question then is this: Why will the A-motor only move in positive direction, irrespective of the various combinations of configurations?

Plus now have additional issue: Z-axis motor began humming loudly during all this. Odder still, the humming is not consistent on the four sides of the motor, it is loudest on one side, and hums softer on one of the other sides, two other sides are about the same.

Any ideas?

[NIC 77]

I am absolutely not an expert on this.

Have you tried plugging the A motor into the Y plug and the Y motor into the A plug of your electronics box? Can you do that or are you hardwired throughout? It looks like you've done everything but this.

If the Y motor then only moves in a positive direction then you know it's probably not your motors / cables.

If however the A motor still behaves the same when plugged into the Y plug then you know it's something wrong with the motor / cable and not your software or computer.

As far as the humming, I'm curious, do you have resistors wired in and if so where? OK, I see you're using the soigeneris products. Hmmm...don't know.

Do you have another computer you can try?

[zool]

I am absolutely not an expert on this.

Hey that makes two of us .. isn't this blind leading the blind!!!

Have you tried plugging the A motor into the Y plug and the Y motor into the A plug of your electronics box? Can you do that or are you hardwired throughout? It looks like you've done everything but this.

If the Y motor then only moves in a positive direction then you know it's probably not your motors / cables.

If however the A motor still behaves the same when plugged into the Y plug then you know it's something wrong with the motor / cable and not your software or computer.

Ger21 suggested this. Went back to studio, tried it. No luck. Also, had checked out the A-motor by switching it with X-motor during the first go around. No change after that either.

As far as the humming, I'm curious, do you have resistors wired in and if so where? OK, I see you're using the soigeneris products. Hmmm...don't know.

Haven't done the G540 "tuning" yet .. maybe it will disappear after that.

Do you have another computer you can try?

Mind reader .. going to set another one up tonight. Hope this works as I cannot figure what else it could be.

And to think, I was within inches of buying a K2 CNC Router, but instead said to myself: "How hard could it be to build another one!"

And .. I would have GLADLY missed all this fun!