[TOTALLYRC]

Mariss,
I don't mean to be too stubborn here I just tried installing a 500k resistor on the 203V. Wow, now the stepper and driver are working at up to 75 in/min without any faults. There were no changes to the motor wiring or the rest of the system. Just adding the resistor. Hope this helps.

Running without a current set resistor will disable the idle current reduction and will over heat or cause the motors to run hotter than they need to be.IIRC

If the motor has questionable internal wiring this reduction in heat may be preventing the motor from getting hot enough to cause a short and fault the Gecko. You would think a device such as a motor winding or coil would be bad or good, but I have senn three or 4 coils that woud show open when hot and would work when back at room temp. My dads car would shutdown and when cooled off, say 15 min, it would run again. we took out the ignition coild and heated it with a heat gun and it would show open when hot and continuity when cold. All the experts said it was impossible, but I saw it myself.

My 2 cens.

Mike

[LeeWay]

At one point in my troubleshooting efforts, I thought I had sood wiring to the motor. Checked and rechecked and checked some more. I would have sworn it was perfect. A week and lots of bad words later, I decided to tear it all apart and start all over. The very first thing I did was disconnect the motor plugs at the drive box.
A single pin was bent over and not inserting into it's recepticle on two axes. Problem solved.

I think it would be beneficial to install test points on the motor end of the wiring. Something that could be covered up later when all is well. In this way, you could easily test for continuity of the complete wiring from the drive to just before the motor.

Just because you use a new roll of wire does not mean there cannot be a break in the wire. It's probably rare, but does happen.

[Xnaron]

I hate to tell you this but the only reason you will ever see a red LED on the G203V is when it 'sees' something that is bad enough to make it shut off and protect itself. "Bad enough" means a short-circuit on your motor. You may have a motor that's arcing inside or you may have sketchy wiring; I don't know. What I do know is something really nasty is making it shut down. A red LED is just one step below the G203V blowing its internal fuse. It is seeing a major malfunction with what it's attached to.

Mariss

Thanks...to be sure it is the motor and wiring I will swap the geckos and if the red light happens on the same stepper I'll know it is an issue with the stepper or its wiring.

[grecout]

this ? is for Marrris I have a stepper motor that has no holding torque or very little it seems to run very but no torque. this is a new system with 3 axises and X,Y run very well but Z again has almost not torque. All three motors are nema 34s and are 1200 oz. in.can you help ?. thanks in advance.

grecout

[Crevice Reamer]

this ? is for Marrris I have a stepper motor that has no holding torque or very little it seems to run very but no torque. this is a new system with 3 axises and X,Y run very well but Z again has almost not torque. All three motors are nema 34s and are 1200 oz. in.can you help ?. thanks in advance.

grecout

Have you checked this?

MOTOR HAS NO HOLDING TORQUE: If the RED LED is off and the GREEN LED is on, check the CURRENT
SET resistor with a multimeter. Re-calculate the resistor value. Check to see if the motor is connected to the
G203V.

CR.

[Crevice Reamer]

Running without a current set resistor will disable the idle current reduction and will over heat or cause the motors to run hotter than they need to be.IIRC

NOPE! That's the G540. If you run the G203V without a CSR, it is set for 7A.

(TERM. 11) CURRENT SET Connect the current set resistor to this terminal
(TERM. 12) CURRENT SET Connect the other end of the current set resistor to this terminal
This input matches the G203V’s current output to the motor windings. The G203V will accommodate motor winding
currents from 0 to 7A. Use the following equation to calculate the value, (in kilo-Ohms) of the current set resistor:
R (in kilo-ohms) = 47 * I / (7 – I) Use the nearest standard value 5% tolerance, 1/4W resistor for this setting.
Here are the current set resistor values for motor current in .5A increments. Round the appropriate answer to the
nearest 5% resistor value.
a. 1A – 7.8K
b. 1.5A – 12.8K
c. 2A – 18.8K
d. 2.5A – 26.1K
e. 3A – 35.25K
f. 3.5A – 47K
g. 4A – 62.67K
h. 4.5A – 84.6K
i. 5A – 117.5K
j. 5.5A – 172.33K
k. 6A – 282K
l. 6.5A – 611K
m. 7A – OPEN

CR.

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Xnaron,
I am seeing the same problem with a 203V and a Homeshopcnc 1200oz-in stepper. If I set Mach to drive the stepper really slow ~2 in/min the motor will run without fault. Faster speeds will bring on the red Gecko light. Powering off the power supply resolves the issue until next time I move quickly. Do you have a current set resistor? I am running the 203V without a resistor because the motor can handle it. BTW, the power supply is 50V at 20A. I'm very pleased with the Gecko products, but a bit confused by this one issue.

Mariss,
I don't mean to be too stubborn here I just tried installing a 500k resistor on the 203V. Wow, now the stepper and driver are working at up to 75 in/min without any faults. There were no changes to the motor wiring or the rest of the system. Just adding the resistor. Hope this helps.

Duhh! You were over-Amping the motor by a full Amp. Guess the motor WASN'T handling it.

(TERM. 11) CURRENT SET Connect the current set resistor to this terminal
(TERM. 12) CURRENT SET Connect the other end of the current set resistor to this terminal
This input matches the G203V’s current output to the motor windings. The G203V will accommodate motor winding
currents from 0 to 7A. Use the following equation to calculate the value, (in kilo-Ohms) of the current set resistor:
R (in kilo-ohms) = 47 * I / (7 – I) Use the nearest standard value 5% tolerance, 1/4W resistor for this setting.
Here are the current set resistor values for motor current in .5A increments. Round the appropriate answer to the
nearest 5% resistor value.
a. 1A – 7.8K
b. 1.5A – 12.8K
c. 2A – 18.8K
d. 2.5A – 26.1K
e. 3A – 35.25K
f. 3.5A – 47K
g. 4A – 62.67K
h. 4.5A – 84.6K
i. 5A – 117.5K
j. 5.5A – 172.33K
k. 6A – 282K
l. 6.5A – 611K
m. 7A – OPEN

CR.

[Crevice Reamer]

I just sent one back yesterday. With the holidays, it does take some time to get a reply, but the website shows they are closed on some days, so emails don't close and there is likely some catching up to be done when they all get back in the office.

I got a reply from Marcus.

He told me what to do with the 203V.
It is in the mail.

This one isn't actually fried I don't think, but doesn't function. It still shows a green LED.

Here is a copy of the email I sent.

I found out today after thoroughly testing and rewiring, that one of my
203V's isn't working. I did a swap with another good drive, a 201, and
the machine is working now. The 201 is out of my router. I went through
the troubleshooting guide for the 203's on your yahoo Support Group. It
is getting a green light, so it must be something minor. The fuse
appears intact. With all power off, I checked across the phases on all
three gecko's at the pins behind the terminals. I got zero ohms from the
wires in the same windings and read 97 or some percent of that value to
the other winding pins. These readings were the same for both good
203V's. I only read about 75 or some percent of that value across the
bad one.
I would like to know how I go about sending this one back for repair?
I did order two more today. I understand it is the holidays, and I will
be able to run both machines off of one control box until the others
arrive. Thanks a bunch.

Here is an image of how the drives were mounted. I have since changed the wiring around some. Motor wires and PS wires are all a little neater and the switch wires no longer run across the top of the X gecko.
This bad Gecko was in the Y position initially. I also added more terminal blocks to make the connections better for power and ground from the PS. It BTW is a 72 VDC @ 12 A. It produces lower voltages as the motor amp draw increases I think. Running 3 amp motors with a 35.2K resistor on each drive.

Attachment 49410

Attachment 49412

I notice 2 things:

1. You have the Geckos TOUCHING each other. That is not conducive to good heat dissipation. That, coupled with the fact that the case is NOT the most efficient heat sink may cause some cooling inefficiency.

2. It looks like when the door is closed, the Geckos are mounted right in the path of the Computer power supply heat exhaust.

CR.

[TOTALLYRC]

NOPE! That's the G540. If you run the G203V without a CSR, it is set for 7A.



CR.

Thanks for the catch CR. There is too much data traveling throuh the old brain these days, which is why I inserted the IIRC at the end.
So the cause of the problem was overheating due to too many amps, although not an idle current problem. I was at least close:idea:

Mike

[yaddatrance]

I'll have to add a "me too" with hybidder's experience with the G203V driving HY200-3450-700's... These are nominally 7A/phase steppers but if I left the resistor off the drivers would randomly fault... I set the resistor to a smidge under 7A and it ran fine...

Now I do have a new question, I recently replaced the X&Y motors with KL34H280-55-4A steppers and while the steppers turn beautifully at between 40-120IPM the steppers growl fiercely at 10ipm... If I turn the tuning pot all the way to the right so the steppers run smoother (not smooth, just smoother) at low RPMs, then it runs into resonance or something and can't make it past 40IPM...

My config is a Trionics CNC, 10x54 knee mill w/ 5 tpi ballscrews on X&Y and elrod's ballscrew for the Z... (Not having a problem with the Z which uses a G202 w/ G901 daughtboard and KL42H2150-42-8A stepper)

[hbaba]

My G203v died, it was working for about 3 years (along with all my other G203v drives). It was driving a Keling KL34H2160-62-8B on my Z axis.
One of the phases became intermittent causing the motor to just jiggle at very slow (>F5) speeds and fault (red light) at speeds above.
This would only happen randomly. I did notice that when I manually rotated the stepper motor's shaft (with the machine powered down) that it was strangely hard to turn, but then would magically free up. This behaviour is due to shunting within the G203v. I replaced the G203v with another and all is fine now.

[gday01]

I read this forum a lot and have learned a lot here and want to say I am not starting a Troll bash of Gecko. Several of the Joe's CNC members suggested I post here. Most people there say this is not Gecko to refuse to work with a customer.

I sent back 4 G203V drivers, I wired 2 of them wrong, 1 had a green LED but the motor would not run. I wanted it checked out because I was getting nowhere. The 4th powered up with a Red LED in the beginning. I will paste my post from the other board below.

I received this email from Gecko today.

We have inspected the 4 x G203V drives you sent back to us for evaluation.

All 4 drives had identical damage of shorted mosfets’s caused by foreign object damage (welded wire or metal pieces) inside of the drive. All 4 drives are deemed not repairable.

Would you like to have them returned to you or given a proper California burial?

Please let me know if you have any questions

I am a shocked at that reply. I killed them, but in different ways I wish they could have been exposed to foreign objects, I never got thar far. I took the covers off the two I torched to check the fuse and they looked like new! I should have sent them back one at a time. I have now paid for 8 G203V and the last 4 G203V work nicely after finding a defective ribbon cable and setting issue.

[CoAMarcus]

gday01,

We only see what we receive here when it comes to the drives. What we received were four drives that had clear indications of foreign object damage; I have attached photos of the drives in question. The area showing metal pieces on the heatsink and on the PCB (including shorting MOSFETs) has been highlighted.

We are more than happy to repair drives free of charge if they are in fact repairable and we do it every day. We even mail them back at our expense. However, if there has been damage to one of the inner layers of the PCB, as there was in this case, our hands are tied.

After looking up the information on these drives it appears they were not purchased directly from us. I would contact the place from which they were purchased if you believe the foreign object damage was induced by them; as mentioned previously, we only see what we receive and cannot be sure where the contamination came from after it left our factory.

I am sorry that the drives were damaged in such a manner, but what would you have us do? I apologize if the email came off as anything but respectful. We try to leave every one of our customers happy, so please let me know what we could have done better so we can better handle situations like this in the future.

Thank you.

Marcus Freimanis

[gday01]

I contacted the vendor when the first drive powered up with a Red LED and no motors hooked up. The vendor told me they were instructed by Gecko to send everyone to them. I bought 1 from you during your sale and 3 more from another vendor. I know have 8 G203V, 4 running nicely and 4 killed. I have also bought 2 G540. I will see what the CNC Community thinks.
Thanks
Gary

[sawmiller]

the "unkillable" is the big difference, in my perception, to the other, cheaper, drives that gecko has.
worth thinking about prior to buying...

[Richards]

The photos say it all. There is loose metal floating inside the cases. None of the ten G203v drives that I've purchased had any metal shavings. It looks like a clear case of misuse to me. I would almost bet that the customer's heatsink was drilled with a G203v being used as a template.

[gday01]

The photos say it all. There is loose metal floating inside the cases. None of the ten G203v drives that I've purchased had any metal shavings. It looks like a clear case of misuse to me. I would almost bet that the customer's heatsink was drilled with a G203v being used as a template.

I used a transfer punch and used one Gecko for a pattern. I opened 2 of the Drives to see if it might be the fuse. I would not be stupid enough to leave that crap in there. I am not implying it was put there either. I am just unhappy I have four dead "Unkillable" units.

[Richards]

Let's play Perry Mason for just a minute.

Given: Four drives were dead before sending them in for evaluation.

Given: At least two of the drives had had the cover removed by the end user.

Given: Geckodrive took photos of the drives showing that metal shavings were inside the drives and that the apparent cause of failure was the metal shavings.

The question is simple: Did the shavings come from the factory or were they introduced after the drives let the Geckodrive factory?

If the shavings had been introduced at the factory, surely there would have been other drives returned that had the same problem.

If Geckodrive is not in the habit of leaving metal shavings lying loose inside a drive and if the enduser did not introduce metal shavings into the drive then it looks like it's time to contact the seller (not Gecko, but the person from whom you bought the drives).

It seems a little unfair to try to put the blame on Geckodrive for metal shavings in four separate drives. If they were that careless in their quality control, they would have had a return rate near 100%.

[gday01]

Let's play Perry Mason for just a minute.

Given: Four drives were dead before sending them in for evaluation.

Given: At least two of the drives had had the cover removed by the end user.

Given: Geckodrive took photos of the drives showing that metal shavings were inside the drives and that the apparent cause of failure was the metal shavings.

The question is simple: Did the shavings come from the factory or were they introduced after the drives let the Geckodrive factory?

If the shavings had been introduced at the factory, surely there would have been other drives returned that had the same problem.



If Geckodrive is not in the habit of leaving metal shavings lying loose inside a drive and if the enduser did not introduce metal shavings into the drive then it looks like it's time to contact the seller (not Gecko, but the person from whom you bought the drives).

It seems a little unfair to try to put the blame on Geckodrive for metal shavings in four separate drives. If they were that careless in their quality control, they would have had a return rate near 100%.

I can certainly see why you say that. Thanks for the comments.

[CastCNC]

Since I do not have these drives I am curious and maybe someone here can answer. Is it possible these shavings can get into a drive that was never opened by the end user? I followed the many threads by gday on Joes forum concerning the problems he was having upgrading his machine to 203s and larger motors that turned out to be a ribbon cable I believe and it seemed to me that he used due diligence in his efforts to get things working.

Obviously there is no way to point a finger not being the customer, vendor nor manufacturer but I would like to say that my dealings with gday have proven him to be an outstanding individual who would and has admitted to his his own mistakes, I can certainly understand his disappointment in being the owner of $600 worth of unkillable drives.

Harry