Weld Steel Green Machine

[R L Harris]

After rewiring the step and dir signal wires to the different BOB terminals I went into Mach3 and changed the Motor Output settings to:

X step = 8
X dir = 9

Y step = 4
Y dir = 5

Z step = 2
Z dir = 3

A step = 6
A dir = 7

Clear as mud yet?

CarveOne

So sounds like you can assign what pins the signal goes to with in Mach
Iam using some 4 wire 18 Awg shield wire to wire this using two wire out of
4 wires to wire each the other 2 are cut back to Insulation!

[CarveOne]

So sounds like you can assign what pins the signal goes to with in Mach
Iam using some 4 wire 18 Awg shield wire to wire this using two wire out of
4 wires to wire each the other 2 are cut back to Insulation!

Yes. The step and dir signal pins can be reassigned in Mach3 on the Motor Outputs screen. These signals only go between the breakout board and the Gecko drives. They are not in the cables going to the motors.

I assume from this statement that you are not using two of the four wires in the cable. It is not a good idea to leave "floating wires" that are not connected, or even to run two of the wires as a parallel signal wire and the other two wires as a parallel common wire.

The motor cables should be four conductor shielded cable, not the wire from the breakout board to the Gecko drives.

Look in my build log for photos of my rewire job yesterday and today. You will see how I rearranged the step and dir wires red and blue doorbell wire and hooked up the motor cables. We'll know soon if it works better. It looks neater anyway.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

Satellite link went down - double post.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Rusty,

I decided to go ahead and rewire my step and dir signal wires per the Gecko FAQ, and rearrange the connections while I was at it. The photos show the before (yellow, green, brown, orange, black wires) and after (red and blue wires). Now no signal wires cross other signal wires and each signal wire has its own common wire. They are all separated from each other as well. They can't get any shorter either. The four heat sink grooves just happened to be convenient for routing the wire pairs and keeping them mostly surrounded by ground potential since the heatsinks are attached to the ground plate with stainless steel screws.

The blue wires are all common, the red wires are either step or dir. I only have those two colors. The order I used from top to bottom of the BOB connector is step then dir. Both common wires go into a single common terminal. I used common door bell single conductor wire.

The five hex spacers are where I will ground the motor cable shields. One spacer connection for each cable shield, or I can tie them all just to the center spacer. Since my new wires are smaller I can replace the 1" hex spacers with some shorter ones I have.

I'll post this in my build log as well.

CarveOne

Noticed all Jumpers on Breakoutboard were the wire for limit home switches
usually are wired also do need to put a resistor at the current set terminals
on G203V drives!

[CarveOne]

Noticed all Jumpers on Breakoutboard were the wire for limit home switches
usually are wired also do need to put a resistor at the current set terminals
on G203V drives!

Let me know what value you need and I'll mail you 5 of them (one spare) @ no charge if you don't find them locally. I have a hundred pak of 36K Ohm 1/2 watt resisters for 3.5amp motors. You most likely need the 36K Ohm value.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Let me know what value you need and I'll mail you 5 of them (one spare) @ no charge if you don't find them locally. I have a hundred pak of 36K Ohm 1/2 watt resisters for 3.5amp motors. You most likely need the 36K Ohm value.

CarveOne

Ok I received the resisters which side goes + set current or does it matter

Thanks
Rusty Harris

[CarveOne]

Ok I received the resisters which side goes + set current or does it matter

Thanks
Rusty Harris

It doesn't matter. Resistors are non-directional. Just fold the leads close to the body and bend the leads to fit them to the spacing needed to go into the terminals. Clip off the leads so that the resistor body is close to the Gecko drive. You can leave the resistor leads a little longer and slide some PVC wire insulation over the leads if you want to. Just strip the insulation off of a piece of 20 or 22awg wire if you have it. Leave enough bare lead length for the terminal screws to connect to.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

This is my panel progress should complete tomorrow!

[FandZ]

So this where you've been hiding your build at. Looking good! So how long till this machine is moving?

[CarveOne]

It's looking pretty good Rusty. I'll look at it in more detail tomorrow morning.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

So this where you've been hiding your build at. Looking good! So how long till this machine is moving?

I plan on having it completed on monday afternoon!

[R L Harris]

It's looking pretty good Rusty. I'll look at it in more detail tomorrow morning.

CarveOne

If you look to lower left I have mounted 2 toggle switches,one for main
power to the motor drivers and one for 5v power to breakoutboard!