Need Help!- Ugh, Bad Luck from Day One with G540

[webgeek]

Hi all; I got my GeckoDrive G540, 3 steppers, and power supply in the mail on Friday. I went ahead and set up an old machine with dual boot into Ubuntu so I could run EMC2 (trying to save money by not buying software and I prefer it's interface to Mach3.) I also snagged a "parallel data transfer" cable which is a printer cable with male connections on both sides.

I wired up the power supply to an extension cord. I then attached pin 11 (on the gecko) to positive and 12 to negative on the power supply. I also ran 10 to negative to simulate an estop being connected. I configured EMC to send out the required charge pump signal on pin 16 (of the parallel port) and then fired everything up. Nothing happened except the "Fault" light on the Gecko stayed on. I double checked everything - it's all wired correctly. If I turn off the charge pump requirement on the gecko, Fault goes off, but I can't jog any axis or get anything to happen in either state. In short, only estop faked, computer plugged in, and power connected == fault.

I then installed Mach 3 trial on the same machine (Vista 32bit) as I assumed it might be a Linux issue and used the Gecko G540 XML file - from the Gecko site - to configure it. Exact same behavior - Fault is always on unless I tell it ignore the charge pump.

As best I can tell the Gecko and the computer are not talking. Is this the wrong printer cable? The use of a male DB25 on the Gecko is odd considering standard printer cables don't use a male connector on both ends. I'm worried this might be a null-modem style cable though it doesn't say it's a crossover on the packaging anywhere. Do you guys typically use an off the shelf cable and a gender changer?

I have no reason to assume the parallel port doesn't work though I have no way to test it either. Windows sees the drivers installed correctly. Neither Mach3 nor EMC2 complained about the port in any way.

Part of my buying the Gecko was to avoid the mess of a breakout board but I'm starting to wonder if that's the only way to figure out what's wrong. Is there any way to diagnose problems? The Gecko manual is a prime example of minimal information - it's only three pages and one of those is just a diagram. Here is it's section on the cable "PARALLEL PORT CABLE: Use a parallel port cable to connect the G540 to the PC. The G540 end of the cable must be a male DB25 connector." - Pretty enlightening.

Anyways, pretty frustrated at this point because the red Fault light is taunting me. It wants me to know something is wrong but doesn't want to be helpful in any way.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Mike

P.S. I'm hoping it's the type of printer cable, going to be a problem if I have to use a different computer.

[Jeff Davis]

I hope you have a meter or access to one.

Printer cable quick check: With a meter on ohms make sure you can read pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, and so on with all pins of the cable. If 2 and 3 are swapped you have a null modem cable.

I noticed the electronics forum here at CNC Zone has some posts relating to the G540 that might be able to help you.


Jeff

[Jeff Davis]

Take a look at this thread.

Gecko 540 Charge pump settings


Jeff

[HimyKabibble]

A "parallel transfer cable" is NOT the right cable to use! That is intended for LapLink and other PP to PP communications programs. It has many, many pins swapped. What you need is a 25-pin "straight-thru" cable - a simple printer extender cable.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Jeff Davis]

Good catch on the cable, I totally missed that in the first read.

[webgeek]

A "parallel transfer cable" is NOT the right cable to use! That is intended for LapLink and other PP to PP communications programs. It has many, many pins swapped. What you need is a 25-pin "straight-thru" cable - a simple printer extender cable.

I thought that might be the case - problem is that neither the manual nor the "initial setup" guide make it clear the type of cable one way or the other. And by using a female connector on the device itself rather than the expected standard printer male connector it gets even less clear what the intent might be - and it requires a gender changer for no good reason.

Either way, at least it's an easy fix. Thanks much for the help everyone!

Mike

[HimyKabibble]

Originally Posted by webgeek I thought that might be the case - problem is that neither the manual nor the "initial setup" guide make it clear the type of cable one way or the other. And by using a female connector on the device itself rather than the expected standard printer male connector it gets even less clear what the intent might be - and it requires a gender changer for no good reason. Either way, at least it's an easy fix. Thanks much for the help everyone! Mike

Any decent computer shop should have a male-to-male straight-thru cable. It's a very common cable.

Regards,
Ray L.

[draughted]

just in case its not the cable
i happen to use a 540 with emc and
i on top of the charge pump have to use
1 as estop
15 as probe in
17 as amplifier enable

[Crevice Reamer]

Set the Parallel port to epp in computer bios.

Here's an $8.95 proper cable that you can get pretty quick if you order it today:

http://kelinginc.net/CNCPackage.html

CR.

[webgeek]

Quick update: it was just the cable. I switched to a different cable not twenty minutes ago and everything worked first try. Thanks much for all the help!

One interesting thing to note - running tests in EMC2 produced much smoother motion than running them in Mach3. There were absolutely no "audible blips" when running many different tests in EMC2 but just jogging in Mach3 would occasionally "blip". Kind of interesting. Fortunately I was planning on using EMC2 either way so it's all good.

Thanks again!

Mike

[HimyKabibble]

Originally Posted by webgeek Quick update: it was just the cable. I switched to a different cable not twenty minutes ago and everything worked first try. Thanks much for all the help! One interesting thing to note - running tests in EMC2 produced much smoother motion than running them in Mach3. There were absolutely no "audible blips" when running many different tests in EMC2 but just jogging in Mach3 would occasionally "blip". Kind of interesting. Fortunately I was planning on using EMC2 either way so it's all good. Thanks again! Mike

That's because Linux is much better behaved than Windows, and it doesn't spend near as much time in the OS doing stupid "eye candy" things. Get a SmoothStepper, and you'll be amazed at how much smoother it can really be.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Jeff-Birt]

One interesting thing to note - running tests in EMC2 produced much smoother motion than running them in Mach3. There were absolutely no "audible blips"

Sounds like you need to optimize your Windows installation for running Mach.