Hello.
I ve managed to make one PCB with the toner transfer method and it apparently worked out, I have checked it against the image file and it seems to be ok.
After populating the board I hooked it up to an old PSU I have salvaged from an old Star matrix printer. The PSU has 25v and 5v outputs. Using the 25 on the X4 connector the board lighted the two leds but only LED1 was stable, LED2 was turning on then dimming to off and presented irregular behaviour. I tried removing the 74HC1, 4030N and 4013N and using new ones but things didnt change much. Probing with didnt match to the instruction file. BTW my Newark IC1 IC3 and IC8 are labeled as MM74HC14N, CD4030BE and CD4013BE respectively. I hope there are the right ones, and I remember I have contributed to the making of the Newark BOM, so if the IC's are the wrong ones please advice.
The 7805 voltage regulator run a bit hot with 25v.
I have hooked up the PSU again right now and the leds turned on and stayed that way until I tried to check the voltage between VGND and E5, wich was 4.9V, and when I touched the VGND with my multimeter lead the LED2 dimmed a bit. If I touch the 7805 heat sink with a finger the LED2 would go off.
The IC1, IC3 and IC8 do receive the same 4.9v on its 14th leg.
I probed the IC1 and it looks like as described in the instructions file, then I completed probing everithing as described and it worked out fine. The 7805 seems just a bit warm now and does not heat up as before. I dont know what was happening before. I feel much better now.
As for testing if the FETS are working properly I am not sure where to connect the 270 resistor. I hook it up to the X9-1 terminal but I am unsure where is 5 VCD logic will be, can I hook up the other lead of the 240 resistor to E5 ? That will be 5 VCD logic power?
Another question:
Apparently I cannot use my 5v output from the PSU because the 7805 delivers 3.8v or something near that, so I wil need to use the 25v and calculate the current limiting resistors. The place to hook the current limiting resistors will be to the center leads of the stepper motor? On the X4-1 and X4-2?
Last question.
When hooking up the discrete unipolar to the LPT ( I dont have a breakout board yet) should I hook up the STEP and DIR to the leads that are not on the JP1 connector ? In the instruction file the LPT is connected to the one column connector past the JP1. What is the JP1 for then?
I hope it will be easy to read.
Konstantin.