Whats with gecko

[mikie]

Is Gecko still in business.

I have an issue with my drives and sent Mariss an email, but i've had no response and when i try to get to his website, it's down

www.geckodrive.com

Anyone heard anything?

I emailed Mariss on old email address that I had. I assume it's still valid.
support@geckodrive.com

[Chris D]

I believe he is vacationing at his second home in Hawaii for a week or so. However, I do recall him saying that there were "plenty of qualified people to help out". Not sure if he was referring to employees or group members on his forum though.

Sorry, that's all I got.

Chris

[JavaDog]

Website works just fine for me...actually, loading faster than it normally does.

[mikie]

Your right,

I just got to work and the web site loads great. Direct link from this site.
I suspect my ISP has BGP routing issues with that subnet to the US.

I ave a question for anyone running G201's.

The other night i ran my unit and when I powered up my transformer, it blew all of my Geckos and the USB port on my laptop, which is where i derive the Reference 5 Vdc.

My mate came over and we did some analysis on what we saw, and on 2 units I found that there was +48Vdc (my supply voltage) on pin 10. The other one showed +0.1Vdc, which is the correct voltage for Pin 10.

Reading the manual, i see that these pins (common, Step/Direction) are optically isolated. Does anyone know how this feature works? From my experience in IT, i would have thought that this would provide protetion against this sort of thing happening.

Any help appreciated
Michael

[JavaDog]

Originally Posted by mikie it blew all of my Geckos and the USB port on my laptop

I can certainly see why you may be a bit anxious for an answer!

[pminmo]

Michael
The fact that you measure a significantly different voltage on one pin 10 vs the other pin 10 says you have a wiring problem. The opto does provide protection, provided you wire it correctly. The common pin 10's on your G201 inputs should not be tied to you motor power supply common in any way. Directly or indirectly. They should be connected to the db25 common pins going to your laptop. That's it.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by pminmo Michael The fact that you measure a significantly different voltage on one pin 10 vs the other pin 10 says you have a wiring problem. The opto does provide protection, provided you wire it correctly. The common pin 10's on your G201 inputs should not be tied to you motor power supply common in any way. Directly or indirectly. They should be connected to the db25 common pins going to your laptop. That's it.

Phil, The Gecko terminal #10 should have +5V.

From the manual:

(TERM. 8) DIR Connect the DIRECTION line to this terminal. (TERM. 9) STEP Connect the STEP line to this terminal. (TERM. 10) +5VDC Connect this terminal to the controller +5VDC power supply These inputs are optically isolated from the rest of the drive. Term. 10 is the common anode connection for the opto-isolators and must be connected to the +5 VDC supply of your indexer or pulse generator. These inputs are meant to be driven by standard TTL logic or other driver capable of sinking 16 mA of current. The minimum logic “0” time is .5 uS while the minimum logic “1” time is 4 uS. Microstepping occurs on the falling edge of the step input.

[mikie]

Phil,

When i measured the outputs at the pins, the only terminals connected to the Gecko were the +- 48Vdc to pins 1 and 2, which is the correct input for the Gecko.

This is why i suggested that the opto is broke, as I saw the same +48Vdc on pin 10.

[pminmo]

Your correct on the pin, maybe I clicked on the wrong drive. Still doesn't make sense, I seriously doubt if 48V is connected to the opto. Where are you connecting your negative meter lead when you measure the 48V? If you disconnect the step/dir and +5V on one drive do you still measure 48V on pin 10 ?

[mikie]

Phil,

Yes, as I said, the only thing that I connected to the drive was the +48Vdc.
I referenced my ground on the ground pin 2 and +ve on pin 10.
So all refernces are from a common voltage.

Thats why i asked about Opto isolation and how it works.
I also thought that it would not pose this issue.

You see, something fried my PC, and it must have been the 48 Vdc into the USB port.
I mean, there is just no real way 5Vdc would cause the Gecko any problems, from my understanding of the hardware

[pminmo]

Looking at the G210 manual it looks to me like Pin 1 is the power gnd and Pin 2 your 48v. Pin 10 is the isolated 5v.

If the only thing hooked up to the gecko, is pin 1 and pin 2, you proably can't have a reading you can rely on just with a meter because of the isolation. I'd recommend you leave the power hooked to the drive same for curent limiting resistor. Get a 5Vdc isolated dc supply, 4 AA batteries in series would work. Hook the positive of the battery to pin 10, and briefly touch and remove the negative of the batteries to the step pin and see if the motor steps with either each touch or removal. If you get multiple steps don't sweat it, if you get none, sweat.

[andy_ck87028]

Mikie

If it happened on Monday night, are you sure that the thunderstorm didn't fry your gecko's and laptop?

A call then to your insurance broker via your electicity might be the best way to solve it!

Fyi, the lightening directly hit the power supply to a house up the road in Kalorama, melted the fuse box, tracked onto the gas pipe, blew the gas meter and burned the house down in 30 minutes!! .... I heard the fire truck going up the hill!

Just being tangential.

Andy