Im trying to set up a CNC mill/drill retrofit. The control system consists of 3 Gecko320 drives, the DC Servo encoder variety. The PC connects via the Cambell Break-Out Board.

http://www.campbelldesigns.com/breakout-board.php

I installed TurboCNC on the PC for a class project a few months ago, and am now using it for this machine - The following information I got from the people who did the retrofit when I told them I wasn't going to use Mach2. I would like to use(or try to use Mach2), but I don't have a PC that will run XP. I think my Pentium 500 will work fine. Here:

(This is from the manufacturer, good people!)
(skip over it to see my question)

The data you want follows:

Inputs are wired parallel - Normally Open

All Positive limits are Pin 12
All Neg limits are Pin 11
In Mach 2 you can use those same inputs for homing.

E-stop = Pin 13 (Wired with Normally Closed contact)

Step & direction want to be active low pulses.

X step = pin 2
X Dir = pin 6
Y step = pin 3
Y Dir = pin 7
Z step = pin 4
Z Dir = pin 8
A step = pin 5
A Dir = pin 9

Enable output (turns on drive contactor - must have) = Pin 1
Spindle output = Pin 14
Flood/Aux output = Pin 16

X/Y/Z screws are setup for 10,000 pulses/inch - Your Accel & Velocities will
be diffrent in that program than in Mach 2 - You will have to play with them
to get a smooth and repeatable accel/peak velocity curve.

There is a jumper on the board that allows you to disable the Mach2 safety pump circuit.
------------stop skiping-------------

so - with all that said - (last nite)I configured my axis and IO ports in TurboCNC and I bypassed the safety charge pump that usually needs that 12.5hrz signal to enable the drives. I double checked everything and turned the machine on. At first I thought it wasn't working. In jog mode the descrete motion works(yay), if I hit up/down left/right pgup/pgdwn - the corresponding axis moves the single step - but in continuous mode nothing happens - I used the active port monitor to test the limit switches and emergency switch - I can enable and unenable the drives - I can turn the spindle on and off - I don't have a direction control -

So - whats going on? And where did the GeckoDrive site go?

Im thinking it's something to do with the "falling edge/active low pulses" thing.

What is a good formula to use for calculating initial velocity and acceleration?

See this link!

http://www.dakeng.com/man/turbocnc.html#_Toc90515682

Then tell me if maybe I need to use a specific pulse width for my step/direction configuration. I just left it at 10.

I keep replying to my own thread - it's like im having a conversation with myself :-)

Then there is the TurboCNC website that says:
http://www.dakeng.com/turbofaq.html#q2
"Almost all configurations should be set to the Active LOW state. Geckodrive 320 and 340 users however should use the Active HIGH state."

So - guess I'll try this... I don't think I can mess up anything experimenting with the step and direction signals, as long as I keep them at TTL levels I shouldn't burn out the breakout board, not that thats something I have control over. At least I set up all the pins correctly, thats something, right?

Problem solved! If anyone one runs into this same problem in the future I will leave a few clues here: - this thread can be killed - do I do that?


This information only applies to systems using TurboCNC.
1. If you are in jog mode and trying to move in continuous mode while a limit switch is active(on my machine it was either pin 11 or 12) the machine does nothing, but in descrete mode it will move your smallest increment. It(the software) doesn't tell you a limit switch is active in jog mode, but, in MDI if you try to move an axis(G00 Y0.0) and a limit is active it will not move AND IT WILL TELL YOU A LIMIT IS ACTIVE.

2. TurboCNC's port moniter is a very usefull tool for diagnostics of your pin configuration. Learn what the color codes mean, one is for low level logic the other for high.

3. And this one is the one that got me. In the manual for TurboCNC it says that the port hardware inverts pin 11 among others.

see: http://www.dakeng.com/man/turbocnc.html#_Toc90515789