Complete newby needing help.

For photos just upload them here... I don't know what happened to make them disappear.

For the 5i25 7i77 combo (order the combo so you get the cable to connect them) you need power for the 201's (up to 80vdc) and power for the field I/O (12-24vdc). Does the cncmasters power section have more than one voltage output? All you really need from the cncmasters is the power supply and the 201's. It will be more straight forward to just wire the 201's directly.

The basic wiring is something like this:

stepper power (up to 80vdc) => 201's
7i77 step and direction signals => 201's
201's stepper drive outputs => stepper motors
12-24vdc => 7i77 field power
limit and home switches => 7i77 inputs

Look to see if the last two terminals on the 201's had a current set resistor on the cncmasters board.

Also I would mount the 201's to the aluminum plate when you remove the board to act as a heat sink.

John

That sounds like a capacitor not a resistor. The resistor if it is an axial wire one will have color bands, dunno what a surface mount one looks like.

Yea you will run wires from the 7i77 to the 201's. I usually use old cables from proximity switches and things like that just to keep it neat and they usually have 3 or 4 22 gauge wires in them. The only thing that needs shielded wire that I know of is encoders.

John

The 22-24 gauge wire is only for the step and direction wires.

The steppers have wires already correct?

I would use at least 16 gauge for the power wires.

That cap is on the power connectors not the current set which is on the other end of the connector. I wonder why they have that?

This should be the link to your manual on the 201, the revision should be printed on the circuit board. Might have to take the cover off of one to see it.

www.geckodrive.com/gecko/images/cms_file...0REV-16%20MANUAL.pdf

John

customcutter wrote:

Pic of the 201 with the cover off. I've seen post on the net where cncmasters has denied that it is a 201. (probably just trying to protect their hardware/software, IMO)

That is a 201 down to the last detail...

John

customcutter wrote:

A better pic of the "power" board. There's another smaller transformer, probably to drop down to 12-24v. But I don't see a bridge rectifier anywhere to convert to DC.

Bridge rectifier is not really a problem. I'm sure I can pick one up if I don't have one around somewhere.

I have several power supplies like that laying around and they use some other method that I'm sure if Peter reads this he can explain. I'd use it till it dies. Looks like the terminal block with 3 reds and 1 yellow wire are the DC side.

John