(252,’2006-10-07 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2007-01-01 23:42:29′,’david’,’CandCNC Mini-IO Breakout Board, Mach Gecko Drive G202 and Keling Step Motors – The Hookup – Part 1′,”,’We received the CandCNC Mini-IO board recently and immediately hooked it up to the Gecko Drive G202 drives and the KelingInc KL34H95-43-8B step motors.
The breakout board came with a CD with Mach3 XML setup files and such. The basics are that you need to copy the XML and SET files from the CD and into the Mach3 folder. After reading the brief instructions (not to mention triple-checking our wiring), we fired up the Mach3Mill icon on the desktop and tried to jog the motors. No go. After a quick search on the CandCNCSupport YahooGroup, we found that someone else had posted a similar question to which the support reply was:
“Most likely the profile will not match. On the CD is a Mini I/O folder and in it is an XML file. Copy that file into the MACH3 folder and when you fire up MACH3 (not MACH3Mill) there will be a list of profiles to choose from. THe Mini I/O should be no the list. Pick it and see if it dosen’t fix the problem.”
Sure enough, when we double-clicked the Mach3 icon, it prompted us with a host of profiles. We selected the “Mini-IO” option and we were on our way to testing our X/Y axes with beefier motors. Oops.
It didn’t quite work out as planned. When the up/down left/right arrows were pressed we could here the motors trying to do something, but they didn’t turn.
At this point all we can think is that clearly the Mini-IO is operating and perhaps the G202s are as well. We haven’t seen any smoke from anywhere so we figured no major wiring mishap occured.
After asking the Mach and Gecko support groups, it was thought that there was indeed some miswire. We checked, double-checked, triple-checked motor winding continuity, continuity from the drive to the drives and all checked out. There was only one thing left to re-check: the current set resistor. After crunching through the numbers we had yet another oops moment! We had a 270ohm resistor in there when in fact it should have been roughly a 320kohm (kilo-ohm!) resistor. We swapped out the wrong ones for 330kohm resistors, re-entered our steps-per-unit numbers for good measure and fired up the system. The motors locked up and we were able to jog! Whew.
For 8-wire motors in parallel winding, you would need to hook up the leads like this:
Gecko G202 / Motor Lead Colors (based on our motors, yours may vary):
A (aka Phase A) / Blue and Yellow
/A (aka Phase B) / Red and Green
B (aka Phase C) / Brown and Orange
/B (aka Phase D) / Black and White
One other thing worth noting.. In Mach3 using the Mini-IO profile, jog defaults to 50% of max. Our theoretical max in Mach was 150″/min so we were perplexed as to why jogging was so slow initially… Once we bumped up jog speeds to 100%, the X/Y axes moved!
‘,’
We received the CandCNC Mini-IO board recently and immediately hooked it up to the Gecko Drive G202 drives and the KelingInc KL34H95-43-8B step motors.
The breakout board came with a CD with Mach3 XML setup files and such. The basics are that you need to copy the XML and SET files from the CD and into the Mach3 folder. After reading the brief instructions (not to mention triple-checking our wiring), we fired up the Mach3Mill icon on the desktop and tried to jog the motors. No go. After a quick search on the CandCNCSupport YahooGroup, we found that someone else had posted a similar question to which the support reply was:
“Most likely the profile will not match. On the CD is a Mini I/O folder and in it is an XML file. Copy that file into the MACH3 folder and when you fire up MACH3 (not MACH3Mill) there will be a list of profiles to choose from. THe Mini I/O should be no the list. Pick it and see if it dosen’t fix the problem.”
Sure enough, when we double-clicked the Mach3 icon, it prompted us with a host of profiles. We selected the “Mini-IO” option and we were on our way to testing our X/Y axes with beefier motors. Oops.
It didn’t quite work out as planned. When the up/down left/right arrows were pressed we could here the motors trying to do something, but they didn’t turn.
At this point all we can think is that clearly the Mini-IO is operating and perhaps the G202s are as well. We haven’t seen any smoke from anywhere so we figured no major wiring mishap occured.
After asking the Mach and Gecko support groups, it was thought that there was indeed some miswire. We checked, double-checked, triple-checked motor winding continuity, continuity from the drive to the drives and all checked out. There was only one thing left to re-check: the current set resistor. After crunching through the numbers we had yet another oops moment! We had a 270ohm resistor in there when in fact it should have been roughly a 320kohm (kilo-ohm!) resistor. We swapped out the wrong ones for 330kohm resistors, re-entered our steps-per-unit numbers for good measure and fired up the system. The motors locked up and we were able to jog! Whew.
For 8-wire motors in parallel winding, you would need to hook up the leads like this:
Gecko G202 / Motor Lead Colors (based on our motors, yours may vary):
A (aka Phase A) / Blue and Yellow
/A (aka Phase B) / Red and Green
B (aka Phase C) / Brown and Orange
/B (aka Phase D) / Black and White
One other thing worth noting.. In Mach3 using the Mini-IO profile, jog defaults to 50% of max. Our theoretical max in Mach was 150”/min so we were perplexed as to why jogging was so slow initially… Once we bumped up jog speeds to 100%, the X/Y axes moved!
‘,’We received the CandCNC Mini-IO board recently and immediately hooked it up to the Gecko Drive G202 drives and the KelingInc KL34H95-43-8B step motors.
‘,’
We received the CandCNC Mini-IO board recently and immediately hooked it up to the Gecko Drive G202 drives and the KelingInc KL34H95-43-8B step motors.
‘,”,’Home-Brewed-CNC-Vertical-Mill’,”,0,”,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’candcnc-mini-io-breakout-board-mach-gecko-drive-g20-and-keling-step-motors-the-hookup-part-1′,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’ccd0f088d46b03a966e01c6869e7da8e’,’2006-10-07′);