Gecko drive

[paul60]

Can a faulty gecko drive cause a stepper motor to run erratic?
One of my x motors is noisy and lock up sometime in the middle of running a file
Thanks

[jerry_stanek]

do you know which one it is? you could change it with one of the oyher ones or just change the Z and Y with both X drives.

[paul60]

do you know which one it is? you could change it with one of the oyher ones or just change the Z and Y with both X drives.
Yes jerry will try that today. Thanks

[jerry_stanek]

It also could be a bad cable

[paul60]

hi jerry still having no luck trying to solve this problem
yes i know the x stepper that is giving the problem
i took the motor of and connect on the opposite side. the motor ran smooth
the light is on all the geckos
just change the Z and Y with both X drives.
how do i do this?
gecko drive G203v
i also replaced the break out board .PMDX-122 thanks again for your help Paul

[paul60]

resistor is hooked up

[jerry_stanek]

I physiclally move the drives around. I know that is a problem but if you are careful you can pry the drives off their green connectors without removing the board. I have 8 drivers and 4 have the green connectors and 4 have blue. If you do find that the drive is bad Gecko will fix it I sent all 8 of my drives to Gecko and they tested and fixed all of them, I had to call and get a RMD number bet they were very nice I just had to pay shipping both ways so about $14. The one guy I talked to said that they are almost indistructable

[paul60]

also took the good sounding x drive motor put it on the bad side and it gets the noise

[bob_reda]

It could be that one of the wires has become disconnected in the fitting

[ken_rychlik]

@Jerry, He is not on a shopbot controller, so who knows how they are mounted. I'm guessing a home made control box based on the pmdx board he mentioned.

[jerry_stanek]

@Jerry, He is not on a shopbot controller, so who knows how they are mounted. I'm guessing a home made control box based on the pmdx board he mentioned.

I am on an Acorn controller and they still use the same green or blue connectors
My guess is it is a bad cable

[Brady Watson]

Pull ALL the connectors off the Gecko and reseat them. They get corroded over time and honestly...really aren't that great of a connector to begin with for this reason. I put a small amount of dielectric grease on the pins and found that helps.

Also...If you have already properly tested the motor cable by using your meter and continuity test on every wire AND pulled EACH motor wire out of the Wago connector and reseated it to make sure none got yanked or are corroded [FYI - a LONG jumper wire can be added for continuity testing so you don't have to remove any wires from the e-chain/bridled wire loop...]

THEN (after you're ABSOLUTE SURE your wiring is up to par) - you can contact Mariss (pronounced Morris, BTW) @ Geckodrive and send it in for warranty repair. I've dealt with Geckodrive for years and every drive I've sent in has come back in working order - for zero dollars.

The caveat is: 1) Don't be a whiney/needy ninnymuggin 2) DON'T try to bs Mariss by lying to him (like you hooked up 75vdc to the resistor terminals by mistake...if you did, just admit it and he's cool with that) 3) Be courteous and professional.

For those with flaky/intermittent motor/driver problems running a 4G board - I consider removing ALL the Geckos from the board (after you remove the ENTIRE board from the ctrl box) and pulling all the connectors and reseating them, part of "maintenance" - Use or make yourself a very long regular screwdriver if you have the blue or black terminals. A piece of steel welding rod, mashed flat at the end on your vice anvil and ground end works well.

For those that don't know...you can pull the terminal strips from any board off by prying them up, preventing the need for you to unscrew each input before you remove the board. Then just pull the stepper and board power and get to it.

-B