[kra]

I recently purchased 3 G210 drives from Gecko.
and I smoked one of them(the other 2 work great by the way).
I sent it back in hopes of having it repaired but it was not repairable.
They are sending me a new drive at no cost(even shipping) anyway!
they are also sending an opto-isolator to turn it into a 201 for me to try
free!
Also very helpful with suggestions, etc. during a phone call to them.
Best support I have seen on electronics!(or anything else)
Randy

[freak_brain]

That's awsome!! Mariss has also been very helpful with me before and after purchasing my tropical creatures. The old saying stands true, even today... You get what you pay for!


Allen

[tauscnc]

I second that.

I had a long wonderful conversation with Mariss today about getting my 201s working (mostly about finding the common). Most of what he said was over my head but man, that guy knows his stuff! Thanks again! Can't wait to try them out.

Oh yeah, if your trying to find the common use a Mouse port or game port (pin 1 has +5).

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

[cncadmin]

Yeah common is NOT common but +5 volts. I had to use a external 5 volt power source to get it to work with the +5 from the computer the voltage was not a full 5 volts it was like 4.44 and the gecko drive did'nt like that.

[tauscnc]

Yeah,
I tried and tried most of the night but could not get them to work. I think I did try an external power supply too but no go. I am going to try pin 1 on the game port for the +5 as suggested by Mariss.

I did ask if they get many calls about this problem and he said that about 10% of the people that buy the geckos use them as hobby and they (hopefully) will up date the instructions or website for us little guys.

I can't wait to them out and get my K2 cnc!

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

[cncadmin]

Power supply should have worked it's needs a full +5 volts, that's all it took to get mine working.

[tauscnc]

Where do you put the negative wire of the power supply or do you just stick the + wire into the common of the gecko and plug the supply into the wall. Doesn't it need a completed circuit?

taus

[cncadmin]

You attach the +5 to the "common" and the ground to the power ground on the Gecko drive.

[tauscnc]

So the power ground is getting the (around) 36 volts from the main power supply and the negative wire of the 5 volts too?

thanks
taus

[cncadmin]

Ground is ground, what is important is that the +5 is going to the "common" and they will all share the same ground.

[tauscnc]

Ok, I am really trying to understand this and as you can tell paul doing a poor job at it Not the wiring anymore but the how and why.

So the negative terminal on the gecko is going to get the negative wire from the 36V power supply and also the -5 volts too. (total 41V) or is this not the right way of looking at it.

The positive terminal on the gecko is going to get the positive from the 36V power supply and the +5 is going to go to the common.

Right.

Isn't the power distribution unequal...am I making this harder then it really is

thanks again
taus

[cncadmin]

Ground is ground, you're not adding to any voltage. To complete the circuit you must ground the power supply. The 5 volt power supply needs a ground that can come from you're main power OR you can just connect it to the same terminal on the geckos ground and that +5 volt (red wire) can be connected to the Geckos "common" terminal. Geckos common needs to see +5 volts.

[cncadmin]

The reason (correct me if I'm wrong) the +5 volts from the computer does not work is because their is no ground back to the geckos, you using the computer ground which I believe is floating?

[tauscnc]

Sounds good to me! Thanks Paul. I will try it out when I get home tonight.

taus

[freak_brain]

I got a small power supply from cnc4pc.com for my 12v (cooling fan) and 5v needs. It was very reasonably priced....here is a link. I was going to use the game controller plug (DB17 I think) but decided not to....more crap to wire to the PC.

Link

http://cnc4pc.com/Mini_Power_Supply.htm

mine works perfectly. Just got my motors running...woooohooooo. My first CNC and I was nervous about waisting all my money by burning it all up (flame2) . Anyhow, it all worked great and Mariss was a big help. So was jfettig (his user name here), good guy who knows his stuff!!

A.James

[tauscnc]

Hey guys,

I got the geckos to work using pin 1 on the game port. Also works using some pin on the mouse ports (just check the 4 wires as 2 of them on mine were 5 volts.) I am FLOORED at how much slower they move compared to my half step board. I know, I know, microstepping-more steps-faster computer-larger power supply

They do sound VERY smooth and are a lot quiter! Hey James, if you like you can also build a 12v and 5v power supply very easily using 7812 and 7805 power transistors from your local radio shack (or such). Probably cost you around $7 bucks total. The link you sent however looks very professional!

Nice stuff
can't wait to get my K2

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

[cncadmin]

How many volts is you power supply? I'm running 80 volts and it's very fast. That's cool you got it to work, I prefer a external power supply that using the computers myself, but hey what ever works.

[freak_brain]

Great, Thanks for the advice!!

A.James

[tauscnc]

Hey Paul,

I am using a 36V (24v transformer setup) and I would say it is about 1/4th as fast as before. Well it seems that way but looking below it is about 2.5 times slower.

Before I was getting 10 mm/sec with 400 steps per mm (around 23 in/min) now I am getting 4.5 mm/sec with 2000 steps per mm (9.5 in/min). I used my Pentium III 850 mhz computer and it was as quick as before. HOWEVER, this computer is windows 2000 and does not have DOS...so I made a dos disc and it works but keeps running off of the a: drive.

I plan to get 2 24 volt transformers and if all is well I should have about 67.2 volts. What transformer setup are you using to get the 80 volts?

I wish windows 2000 just had DOS so I could use my CNCPro easily.

tauscnc

[ger21]

Is it slower because your step rate isn't fast enough?