Hi, Bill
Glad you got it sorted out, Hard to say on the encoder, Defective, Damaged on install, Just try to keep them shielded and clean.
Gecko's do have some safeguards, If it see's more than 128 inputs pulses with no encoder movement thy err/trip out, But on re-set it's not seeing any input pulses, So it has no way to know, That's why you have that big red E-stop Button.
Chip