Turbo CNC and geckos

[snoman70]

I have two geckos.

As of now, this is how it's wired. Power supply to geckos to stepper motor.

I have five volt power that I have pulled off a drive connection inside the computer (to the "common pin" on the gecko), and have ran a ground (from inside computer case) to the power ground.

I am using a breakout board, and have my step and dir set on pins 4 and 5, respectively.

When I try to make the motor move....nothing.

I also know that the port is 378, and it is good.

I however am not seeing any voltages at the pins...sorry, actually am seeing 2 or 3 volts, but it never changes, even when changing directions.

Did I miss setup inside the gecko or something? Or is my problem elsewhere?

Any suggestions?

-Jacob

[ger21]

If you're not seeing voltage changes at the pins, you either have a bad parallel port, or TCNC is not configured properly. Do the motors lock up when power is supplied?

[Bubba]

Depending on the computer, it may not have enough voltage swing on the port to work. Another possibility, is that you need "pullup" resistors (say about 1K or so) as the port can "sink" more current than it can source.
You do not indicate which breakout board that you have so they may not have them. Also, do the red "fault" lights go out on the geckos???

[snoman70]

Can you give me a basic schematic as to what the pullup resistors would look like in line with the gecko?

The stepper motor locks up when the power is applied.

I am not sure what you are referrign to with the "fault" light, I only see one light and that is the "power" light.

The parr port worked fine with an old HobbyCNC setup, so I'm really confused if it's problems with it.

-Jacob

[ger21]

Try increasing the pulse width.

[snoman70]

pulse width is at ten right now, should i go higher?

[snoman70]

oh yah...I am using the breakout board that Dan Mauch provides.

-Jacob

[Bubba]

Josh,
The red led should go out in order to work. Have you downloaded the pdf manual from the gecko site? I use servos, but it is necessary to apply a 5V voltage to the err/rst terminal to enable the drive.

[snoman70]

The voltage at the output pins is low, I am showing 3.4 volts instead of five. This is after a test with Q basic. Still dont get what you are saying with the red led, read the manual. These are gecko 201, so I'm using steppers.

So, how do I step up the 3.4 volts? (with a schematic preferably...please!)

-Jacob

[ger21]

I think a Campbell breakout board will bump up the voltage to the Geckos.