Ted

Thanks for the reply. I talked to an electronics mate today, he is of the same opinion. He said those connector are prone to dry poor connections. And they don't like high current. So I will check current draw but the resistor should limit that. He also mentioned they offen have dry solder joints on the back of the board pins.

I hope it has not damaged the gecko...

I second Pete's advise.....
Give PMDX a call or message, best to deal with them.....1St....They now a thing or two :p

Best of luck ;0)

Hello Mich.
I sent you a p.m. a while back.
Unfortunately I will not get to Darwin this year.

I have no advice to offer with your problem:o

PMDX Exceptional service
 

So I contacted PMDX about the burnt boards...
Within the day I have this response and new boards on freight.


The problem that shows in your photo is caused by failing contacts in the connector. The electrical waveform from a stepper driver is similar to that of a plasma cutter and if the connector is not making good contact, it will suffer from severe arcing that is sustained by the waveform.

The connectors chosen by Geckodrive for the G2XX series drivers are rated for 10 amperes, but in practice they have a higher than desirable failure rate.

The things that you can do to minimize the problem are:

1) Do not plug and unplug them unnecessarily, thus weakening the spring contacts.

2) Mount the drives and tie down the cables such that machine vibration does not shake the connectors.

Be sure to also check the connector on the bottom of the PMDX-133 and on the Geckodrives. If there are signs of overheating there, you should clean the pin headers on the Geckodrives with a mild abrasive such as an ink eraser.

I wish there was a magic bullet to solve this issue, but I am not aware of one.


The new boards arrived here yesterday fitted them today and all is back running.
I must give a big shout out to Steve from pMDX, I could not ask for more from them.

Mich,

I really appreciate your sharing the resolution of the problem including the E-Mail from PMDX. As you mentioned, the PMDX support is exceptional.

It's interesting that PMDX mentions "vibration" as a possible cause of the difficulty. I notice that your control boxes are mounted on the table as opposed to being mounted on the wall. I remember that Gerald recommended against mounting the control box on the table. I have even considered moving my control box from the wall to the table because of cable management issues and cable lengths. Given your experience and PMDX's E-Mail, I'm no longer considering moving my control box.

PMDX133 failure background
 

John
just a little background on my machines resent history that may give cause to this issue.
This machine has only run for around 10hrs since a 1000km road trip bolted to the floor of a shipping container over the last three years. I would lay money on that three-year trip being a far greater course of vibration and loose connections than the box being mounted to the machine.
I will, however, keep a closer eye on the control boards than I have done in the past.

Mich,

I'm sure you're right. Thank you for the additional information about your machine's history. I've moved mine too. I'm going to take the hint and check my connections.