Newbie- Stuck on First Hurdle.

[WilDun]

I shelved my Gecko 540 project a couple of years ago due to hospitalisation and a long recovery, - I felt that I knew a little about computers and electronics but here I am, stuck at the first hurdle! so I guess I'm still a newbie
It feels a little like when I first used a computer years ago - I kept asking how to switch it on

Plugged in the Geckodrive 540 (rev1) - no smoke, - the computer will not recognise the new hardware , so my question is, how do I get it to recognise it? (guess software of some sort needs to be installed !)

Printer port is set to EPP as instructed.
Motors are not wired in as yet and I'm using Mach 3.
Red error light.

Can someone point me in the right direction? - thanks.

[WilDun]

No takers? I thought this would be an easy one for someone to solve! - guess I'll have to try the yahoo forum, - it's a bit harder to use but often full of info too,

[epineh]

A couple of things, the G540 won't suddenly appear on your PC like a USB drive, as it is plugged into the parallel port you will need to configure Mach before anything much happens.

Here is a link to Gecko's site with a quick initial setup that shows how to connect the charge pump :

Support

This should get you started, also I would go over the next page as it gives you a walkthrough on what to do :

Support

Good luck, feel free to ask more questions if you need to

Russell.

[WilDun]

Thank you very much for the reply,
I have already started delving into the ways and means of setting up, I see it will take a lot of time for a non Computer/CNC person as I am to be able to absorb all the stuff required, but I'll get there eventually! and this info along with the video tutorials and the simulation mode should help a lot.

Also I believe that there are one or two differences between the early versions (I have the early version) and the latest one, which is something I'll have to take into account.

A lot to learn but extremely well documented! - however, any other helpful suggestions will be gladly accepted.

Thanks again

[epineh]

No problem, yes it can be very daunting getting everything sorted, not to mention so many ways of achieving the same thing.

I do believe there is a setup file for Mach (XML) already done for the Gecko G540, this should save you some time, I don't use Mach myself but I am sure I have seen this somewhere, if I find it I will post it here for you...

Cheers.

Russell.

[WilDun]

[QUOTE I do believe there is a setup file for Mach (XML) already done for the Gecko G540, this should save you some time.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I came across this file but didn't download it but I have changed to another computer and will try it (if I can find it), however I really should try setting things up from instructions in order to get an understanding of what I'm doing.

Thanks again, and as before, any tips appreciated.