how to hook breakout board to geckos?

[Apples]

I am using a cnc4pc.com breakout board. I have 2 Gecko G202's.

I need som help hooking up the wires from the breakout board to the Gecko's.

With my breakout board. I only have 17 pins. Next to each pin is a GND connector. So I am a bit confused as to hooking 18-25 as ground, I actually think that it is already done. So what are the GND terminals for next to each pin?? I know that I you need a GND terminal for the input pins.. Because if you want to put in a limit switch, you would connect one wire to an output terminal and the put in the limit switch then the other bit of wire from the switch goes to the GND terminal. This will complete the circuit when the limit switch is pressed.


This is from the manual.
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Buffered outputs.
Outputs are buffered through integrated circuits, allowing the card to output the signals
without using the power from the parallel port.
· Output pins 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,14,16,17.
· Input pins 10,11,12,13,15.
· Input and output pins with close by ground connections.
Forget about grounding problems. Easily connect your pin using your close by ground
connection. You do not need to be en electronics expert to ground all your stuff.
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And how do I know what pins on the breakout board I have to use for the direction and step signals to the gecko's? In the cad drawing you gave me you said that I had to use 1,2,3,4,5 for charge pump, step x,dir x, step y and dir y. You said that this was typical of breakout boards.

Are they set pins that must be used? Or could I use any output pins that I wanted1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,14,16,17. If for arguments sake I was to use 6,7,8,9,14 instead of the ones that you recommended(1.2.3.4.5), is it just a matter of adjusting the "ports and pins" in mach3 to match the corresponding pins on the breakout board?

Peter

[ger21]

You don't use the grounds next to the step and direction. Usually X step and direxction are 2,3. Y is 4,5 . Z is 6,7.

You should be able to use any outputs for the step, direction and charge pump. Do you even have the charge pump board?

[Apples]

Yes I have the charge pump.

[Runner4404spd]

i bought the same board. why do you need the charge pump and what does it do?

[Apples]

Basically the saftey charge pump is a saftey switch. There is a signal betwee the computer and the saftey charge pump, somthing like 12,500khz. If your computer crashes the signal to the saftey charge pump will be broken. When this signal is broken it tells the machine to 'stop'. It is like a limit switch, they are a saftey thing to have.

Because if the computer crashes and the machine is still going as it crashes the machine could do anything. It could rapid over here over there, dive into the work that you are doing etc.


The saftey charge pump prevents this from happening.

Cheers

Peter

[Apples]

I have got my plasma table going, so thanks for the help.

Peter