stepper motors turn only one direction

[Mike Boarman]

My steppers go only one direction, when jogging the other way the motor just vibrates. I am using stepper driver boards, Gecko 201.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

[widgitmaster]

I had that problem, it turned out to be a fried breakout board!
Try Bob Campbell's breakout board, it has all the best features!
http://www.campbelldesigns.com/breakout-board.php

[Konstantin]

Hello Mike.
I am not sure about Geckos, but, have you tried to change the high/low signal on the output signals configuration in the software?
What is your controller software?
It helps to get to the problem if you give as much information about your setup as possible.


Konstantin.

[Mike Boarman]

I am using Mach3. I have tried it using active low on the step and direction and without the setting. How does the direction pin work? I read somewhere that all it does is break ground to reverse direction.

Thanks for your help!

[ger21]

With a voltmeter on the direction pin and to ground (pins 18-25), you should see 5V in one direction and 0V in the other.

What did you do to get the motors to spin? That answer may help here.

[Mike Boarman]

In the direction that works I get .88 vdc on the direction pin and in the direction that does not work I get 3.48 vdc. When I unhook the direction wire, the motor runs one direction with 5vdc on the dir pin on the control board, then hooking the direction wire from printer port to control board direction pin, it turns the other direction still jogging in the same direction on keyboard pulling volts to .88. But when the wire is hooked up toggleling the motor with the keyboard rotates one direction only.

I wired the printer port backwards I started at top right instead of top left when labeling the pins. So instead of pin 1 I used 13 and 2 for 12. Have I fried my boards or printer port?

Thanks again

[ger21]

You probably have a newer PC that only puts out 3.3V on the parallel port, and the Gecko's need 5V. If you're not using a breakout board, you may need to get one that bumps the voltage up to 5V.

[Mike Boarman]

I have one, I used it, it works,


Thank you