[schwinndk]

I seem to have some problems getting the nema 23 servo motors to run. I have wirred everything up and have connected the #5 and #7 so the Gecko drives so it should reset if problems should happen. But when doing so, it keeps resetting every 2 seconds and the red light "FAULT" keeps it doing so all the time. I use a C10 breakout board with 2 and 3 for X 4 and 5 for Y and 6 and 7 for Z.
I am using the jumper on the C10 for 5vdc and have the commen output on the Geckos to go to Com port on the Breakoutboard. Wirred up like the manual: http://cnc4pc.com/Tech_Docs/C10R8_WD1.pdf


Solutions:

I have tried to switch over the PHASE A and B. Then it just keeps brumming all the time. I dont think thats right.
I have also tuned the Geckos DAMP and GAIN to 10oclock on the LIMIT all the way around.

I have also tried jumping the E-stop switch and the limit switch like the manual without any luck

I read in a forum that someone suggested to switch the power from the powersupply around to the Geckos. Is that true?..

Does anyone have a suggestion to what to do next?

Best... Kim

[diycnc]

on mine i left the phase wires alone and swapped the motor power wires.. if it faults with it just sitting there this is probably the problem..

after doing this i still had some weird problems caused from the brushes not being fully seated, to solve this i just hooked the motor directly to my supply and let it run for 30 min..

[schwinndk]

Thanks for your suggestion. I am in contact with Gecko and Keling at the moment and have asked them if I can do this. I would not like burning the drivers if they dont agree on doing this... But thanks for answering...
Kim

[MattTheNoob]

How long are the wires between the power supply and the 320's? I think 18" is the max before you need to add a capacitor at the drive.

[schwinndk]

I believe it is under 18", but I can try to make them shorter. I bought a bigger powersupply then the kit suggested since I was told in here that it was too small for the motors. So I cannot see that this might be a problem. But I will give it a shot since it is ALL the drives that has the FAULT light.
You can see the length on the picture on this thread:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77418

Kim

[MattTheNoob]

Power supply size doesn't really have anything to do with it, and that looks like more than 18" to me.

If you read some of the extreeeeemly detailed and informative information that Marriss has put together, he explains that it is a function of the drives pulling in power at 35khz (maybe not the right number) and the power needs to be "right there" when the drive needs it. Adding a capacitor at the drive helps this.

[schwinndk]

Hi MattTheNoob,

Thanks for the input.. I will try shorten the wires down to the minimum and try it out. I have sendt the picture to Keling and Gecko and they did not comment it. But it is worth a try...

Kim

[schwinndk]

Hi MattTheNoob,

Shorter wires did not work (200mm). Still same problem..:tired:

Kim

[TOTALLYRC]

I would suggest reading the trouble shooting and the setup files to be absolutely certain that it is hooked up and working properly.

The voltmeter test for the encoder works well and will let you know in short order if the encoder is working properly.


http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/ser...leshooting.pdf

http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/G320-REV-7-Manual.pdf

Mike

[schwinndk]

Hi Mike,

Thanks. This is the manual I have been going through, and I end up with it telling me to send them back for service. I have not checked if the power
supply current rating is less than 50 mA since this is a CNC KIT from KELING and it is sold as somthing that works together. So if you ask me it should be working out of the box when following the wire diagram for gecko servo 320 and kelings site. But I will try the volt meter test and try to figure out whats going on. I am glad that you guys help since KELING isn´t answering and I havent heard from GECKO in a week even though I answered some questions from them.. I am really disapointed in them. They promice good support and yet they don´t do anything.

Is it really that hard to ajust the Gecko 320 so that I need oscilloscope to see what happens?? How should the jumpers on the gecko be set? Can they be set wrong? I have not ajusted any of them, just followed the diagrams. And both keling ang Gecko have not commented anything of this.

Kim

Kim

[MattTheNoob]

I can't tell from you picture, but it looks like you are using an external 5v power supply. If that is the case, you need to connect the 5v neutral to the 5v neutral on the gecko 320. I only bring this up because I made the same mistake on my first setup. One of the smart folks here (it might even have been TOTALLYRC) set me straight. I wasn't getting the fault light, but I was definitely getting squirrelley behavior from my motor.

If you bought this stuff as a kit, then I understand your frustration. Hang in there. Stay pollite. There are a lot of sharp folks on this board if the vendor does not come through.

[TOTALLYRC]

Hi Mike,

Thanks. This is the manual I have been going through, and I end up with it telling me to send them back for service. I have not checked if the power
supply current rating is less than 50 mA since this is a CNC KIT from KELING and it is sold as somthing that works together. So if you ask me it should be working out of the box when following the wire diagram for gecko servo 320 and kelings site. But I will try the volt meter test and try to figure out whats going on. I am glad that you guys help since KELING isn´t answering and I havent heard from GECKO in a week even though I answered some questions from them.. I am really disapointed in them. They promice good support and yet they don´t do anything.

Is it really that hard to ajust the Gecko 320 so that I need oscilloscope to see what happens?? How should the jumpers on the gecko be set? Can they be set wrong? I have not ajusted any of them, just followed the diagrams. And both keling ang Gecko have not commented anything of this.

Kim

Kim

Hi Kim,
I have dealt with both Gecko and Kelling and have nothing but good things to say about both companies.

The G320 is significantly more difficult to setup than a stepper drive.
You don't need an o-scope to set it up, but if you have one you should use it.

The problems that you are having require you to start at the begining and do one thing at a time.

It can be frustrating because you bought everthing as a set and it is supposed to work. It will work but it is not like buying a toaster, as all the pieces can be tested after final assembly by the manufacturer(sp). I have a fair amount of experiance doing electrical and some very basic electronics experience and it still took a while to get my g320s to work on the test bench.

Leave the jumpers in the default position for now.

If you are using an external power supply for the encoders, follow this from the gecko manual

"ENCODER HOOK-UP
Connect a 470 ohm resistor from TERM. 6 to TERM.
7 if an external power supply is used for the encoder."

If not ignore it.


I am looking at your picture on this thread
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...3&d=1250244137

It looks like you have you have it wired incorrectly, if the blue wire from the BOB is in fact 5v+ like the sticker says, you have the 5v+ going to the step terminal and the - wire going to the 5v+ pin

From the Gecko manual
(TERM. 10) DIR Connect the DIRECTION line to this terminal.
(TERM. 11) STEP Connect the STEP line to this terminal.
(TERM. 12) +5VDC Connect this terminal to the controller +5VDC power supply

Let me know if this helps.
Mike

[schwinndk]

Thanks MattTheNoob,

ust a bit frustraighted that I don´t hear from the vendors.. But I will be passions..

Mike,

Thanks as well.. All the help is appreciated..

I think the wirering is good enough. It is the middle brown wire that is 5V+ from the BOB. This goes into (TERM. 12) on the Gecko. I have messured 5V+ on it, so it should be ok. There is a jumper on the BOB where I can set it to Ground or 5V+ on the COM output. So that is correct.

Jumpers are on default. Haven´t tutched them..

External power supply? A danish guy who has bought the same KIT has not mentioned this when he saw the picture. But I am using 5V+ witch comes from the power supply into the BOB and then out to the Gecko. Is that what you call external? I just cannot see that I need to add a 470 ohm resistor when both Keling and Marco at Gecko hasn´t mentioned this after viewing the picture.... But let me know your thoughts on this..

You say it is difficult to set up the Geckos. How should approuch it. Leaving Gain and DAMP to 9 0´clock position and have the LIMIT all the way CCW. I have 5V+ between #5 and #7 all the time, and when I turn the LIMIT 1mm CW the FAULT lights pops up and it starts to (chock...chock) every secund. The higher I turn the LIMIT the more power it gets on each (chock...chock)

I have switched the white A and the brown B on the encoders to the driver and it does not help. Switching the power to the motor should give the same results as doing this.

Should I do somthing with the jumpers on the AMT102-V Optical Encoder?

Let me know your opinion.. Thanks again Mike...

[MattTheNoob]

Just for kicks, forget that you bought this as a kit. The components don't care if you bought them as a kit, they still need to be wired correctly. The components don't care what a danish guy did.

Read the gecko documentation and follow it exactly. You DO have an external power supply (vs using the 5v supplied by the gecko drive), you DO need the 470 ohm resistor.

You are asking for help, people are offering it, and then you are telling them that it's not what the non-responsive kit supplier said.

The photo of spaghetti with some components thrown in is not the best diagnostics tool. Don't expect folks to be able to look at that and find all of your problems.

I agree that Keling should have provided precise instructions, but they aparently didn't. If you follow the gecko documentation, every word of it, your system will work. Start by following the advice by TotallyRC. What he has told you is correct.

And no, you don't need an o-scope to set up the drive.

[diycnc]

try using shorter wires, also take a closer picture to better show the wires in the terminals.

this is most likely wired wrong. it sounds like your not getting encoder signal to the gecko, or the signal is backwards from the motor (switch one of the two)

does it clunk when sitting or only when you try to move it using mach3? even if you unhook the bob the motor should just sit there and humm..

if its clunking when you try to jog the motor i highly suggest that you hook the motor directly to the supply and let it run for 30min to wear in the brushes. mine had the exact problem with the clunking and breaking in the brushes really helped.

also you mention that you had to mount the encoder with glue.. did you get it perfectly centered? i think this is pretty important with encoders that they are lined up proper.

[TOTALLYRC]

Thanks MattTheNoob,

ust a bit frustraighted that I don´t hear from the vendors.. But I will be passions..

Mike,

Thanks as well.. All the help is appreciated..

I think the wirering is good enough. It is the middle brown wire that is 5V+ from the BOB. This goes into (TERM. 12) on the Gecko. I have messured 5V+ on it, so it should be ok. There is a jumper on the BOB where I can set it to Ground or 5V+ on the COM output. So that is correct.

Jumpers are on default. Haven´t tutched them..

External power supply? A danish guy who has bought the same KIT has not mentioned this when he saw the picture. But I am using 5V+ witch comes from the power supply into the BOB and then out to the Gecko. Is that what you call external? I just cannot see that I need to add a 470 ohm resistor when both Keling and Marco at Gecko hasn´t mentioned this after viewing the picture.... But let me know your thoughts on this..

You say it is difficult to set up the Geckos. How should approuch it. Leaving Gain and DAMP to 9 0´clock position and have the LIMIT all the way CCW. I have 5V+ between #5 and #7 all the time, and when I turn the LIMIT 1mm CW the FAULT lights pops up and it starts to (chock...chock) every secund. The higher I turn the LIMIT the more power it gets on each (chock...chock)

I have switched the white A and the brown B on the encoders to the driver and it does not help. Switching the power to the motor should give the same results as doing this.

Should I do somthing with the jumpers on the AMT102-V Optical Encoder?

Let me know your opinion.. Thanks again Mike...

I would approach it in the following way using a systematic and step by step approach.
1.Take 1 drive and 1 motor.
2. disconnect them from everything.
3. Open the gecko manual and follow it step by step
4. If you can get past all the tests in the gecko manual, then connect it to the BOB
5. The amt102 encoders, which I actually have but have not yet used, come highly rated by Mariss at Gecko. They also only draw 10 ma so they are well within the geckos ability to drive directly.

As far as the dip switches on the encoders, set them for 500. The drive requires something above 200 or so, according to the manual. I can't imagine that setting it below 200 would give all these problems, but when in doubt, follow the manual.

If the power for the encoder is connected to the gecko drive, then you are not using a seperate power supply.
The 470 ohm resistor gets connected to the encoder power terminals when using an external supply but since it looks like the encoder is powered from the gecko, ignore this. I

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...3&d=1250244137

Also in this picture you are using the blue wire for the high voltage positve going into the gecko and then you are using the blue wire for the negative from the bob to the gecko for control power. That is what led me to believe you have it wired incorrectly.

A better picture of the wiring done neatly and labeled would also be very helpful.

Once you have done all of the steps in the gecko manual and are 100% sure of the wiring a phone call directly to gecko would probably be in order. I understand an international phone call is not free, but saving the hours of frustration could be well worth it.

Best of luck, Mike

[schwinndk]

MattTheNoob:

Thanks again.. Don´t get me wrong.. I am quite happy to get your comments on what can be wrong and will follow them. I will follow up on it step by step using yours and others advice to find the problem. Since it is the same problem on all three Geckos it must be wired up incorectly somewhere as you say......

diycnc:

I will try shorten up all the wires as suggested and take closer pictures on how I approch it for a better understanding. I will try switching the motor wires and test again.
It clunks just sitting there and also with the BOB connected. I have no contact to it using MACH3. But it could be somthing with an incorrect wirering of the Gecko I suspect..
I removed the glue after suspecting this as a problem and screwed it on on the backplate. I did not drill through the backplate of the alu backplate as one suggested. So now it is secure and it fits dead center of the shaft using the tools that came along with the encoder.
I will give one motor a spinn for 30Min following your advice just to be sure .. Thanks

TOTALLYRC:

I really apriciate your help here. I will start from an end and follow your suggestions point by point and keep you updated with pictures so it will be easier to follow. Your a big help.. Thanks so far..

Kim

[schwinndk]

Hi TOTALLYRC,

I have tested all the aspects outand still come down to the conclution that there is somthing wrong. We followed the wirediagram from the 6 page instruction from Gecko and the problem starts when we add the power. It still goes (chonk....chonk) with the red FAULT light on. This means we cannot go any future then to the middle of page 2. A nother problem is also that the drawing of the GECKO 320 is not the same as the real GECKO driver (see the picture). There is one jumper missing and the test poind and test poind ground is not where it should be. So one problem is that the drawing does not match the Gecko drivers we got.
Other thing is that our motors has got more than one ohm.

MOTOR #1 = 2,3 ohm
MOTOR #2 = 2,4 ohm
MOTOR #3 = 4,3 ohm

We pulled motor #3 apart to check if everuthing was looking roght, and it looked OK. Not the same situation as "JENS H" under the support thread. I don´t know if this is too mush??

I have shortend down all the wires and changed all the +V to red/brown wires. All the blue wires are ground. The rest should be easy to see what is what. I have followed the instructions point by point on the manual, and also the troubleshooting, and it points out that I have defekt drivers. We have messured that the 5v+ to the encoder and id reads 5v+. So the encoder gets 5v+ from the GECKO as you said. No need for the 470 ohm resistor.

It still wierd that it is all the drivers witch has the same problem.. Let me know what you think. In any case I will contack Gecko for advice.

Kim

[Bubba]

If I might jump in here and possibly this has all been covered before.

1. In your picture, I see no jumper to cause the 320 to "reset". Per the manual I have,
"G340 TERMINAL WIRING:
IMPORTANT: When first testing the G320, connect ERR/RES (term. 5) to ENC+ (term. 7).
Please follow the next steps in the sequence they are given."

2. Also are previously reported by Mariss in the past several months,
" G320 Power-up Fault
I have identified the cause of the G320 occasionally failing to exit
FAULT on initial power-up. The problem is a nuisance at worst and
there is a simple solution:

Wire a 47K resistor (1/4W) from ARM- (terminal 3) to POWER GROUND
(terminal 1).

The G320 uses IR2104 half-bridge MOSFET drivers. A peculiarity of
these drivers is the the bridge outputs (ARM+ and ARM-) must be at 0
VDC on power-up. If not, the bridge may not start up properly (see IR
Design Tip DT 99-7 "Alleviating High-Side Latch On Problem at Power
Up"). The added 47K resistor drains both bridge outputs to 0 VDC prior
to power-up. Doing so completely eliminates this problem.

All G320s we have manufactured (years 2000 to 2008) will benefit from
this correction if you are experiencing a failure to exit FAULT on initial power-up.

Mariss"

Maybe this will help?

[schwinndk]

Hi Bubba,

Thanks... Sorry.. I took alot of pictures when testing, and I did follow the GECKO manual where it said to connect #5 and #7.. See picture.

I will have a look at the threads from Mariss regarding thease issues and see if I can get a hold on a 47K resistor.

Kim