Stepper disconnection with g540 turned on

[Rimbaldo]

Hi!! I have a doubt... My friend told me I can never disconnect a stepper motor when it’s driver (in my case the Gecko G540) is turned on. That I may fry the driver...

While assembling my cnc kit to my mill I often connected and disconnected a stepper, for testing reasons,and sometimes the Gecko was turned on through Mach3. I never experienced any problems, but now I’m afraid I could fry my controller.

I really can’t disconnect the stepper from the gecko while the gecko is on? (On, but the motor is not running, of course)

Could I fry it? Or the Gecko has some kind of protection against it?

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[ger21]

Yes, you can really fry it. Never unplug a stepper when the drive is powered. If you had a cheaper drive, it would likely fry the first time you try it.
Geckos do have some protection, but it won't help every time.

[109jb]

So instead of just doing the thing that will for sure not fry your driver you opt to get internet opinions about it? Would you really trust if someone said it would be ok and risk your gecko instead of just turning off the power supply?

[Rimbaldo]

So instead of just doing the thing that will for sure not fry your driver you opt to get internet opinions about it? Would you really trust if someone said it would be ok and risk your gecko instead of just turning off the power supply?

I’m sorry, but you already know this fact, so you may find it silly.

I didn’t by the time I was assembling my machine. My friend told me I shouldn’t do this afterwards. As he doesn’t have a driver like this, and so far my driver is ok, I’m just double-checking this info on a part of a forum dedicated to this driver. I thought that maybe this driver had a protection.

I tried to get this info on gecko’s website but didn’t find anything about it. I may have missed it, or skipped it, if it’s written somewhere.

I’m slowly learning and reading as much as I can through the years and getting information shared over the internet, and also in this particular case, in this very forum dedicated to exchange of information of this brand of products.

[Rimbaldo]

Yes, you can really fry it. Never unplug a stepper when the drive is powered. If you had a cheaper drive, it would likely fry the first time you try it.
Geckos do have some protection, but it won't help every time.

Better be safe than sorry! I wasn’t aware of this when assembling my cnc.

Thanks a lot!!

[RCaffin]

Some of the stepper drivers have an logic-level Enable pin. It allows you to disable the big FETs and safely disconnect the motor. I use this all the time via a front panel switch.

Cheers
Roger