HI,

This is probably a stupid question, but this is my first venture into CNC so I don't know what to expect at this stage...


I have set up an old emco cnc5 with new steppers and a Gecko G540, the gecko is plugged into the emcos original 50v supply.

Everything seems to be wire correctly and the steppers are responding to Mach 3 and moving.

My question is: when the G540 is powered but the steppers are stationary how much noise should the stepper motors be making? Both of mine hum quite loudly and one has a fast ticking noise? If I swap motor cables the ticking swaps to the other motor so it seems to be to do with the differect signal coming form the g540, but should the motors be audible form just the holding current?


The other thing I noticed is when he G540 powers on I can't have a radio on in the house the g540 creates too much interference is this normal and is there any solution?
(not sure if this is the right forum to post this in maybe there is a gecko forum somewhere?)

Advise appreciated :-)

Thanks

Joel

The motors should be silent. Are the current set resistors at the G540 end of the motor cables, or the motor end? They should be at the G540 end.
Gecko has a Yahoo group for support.

They are connected at the G540 end using these little boards from homann design that have a veriable resistor integrated in to the 9 pin plug:

http://homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24&products_id=111

the resistors are set to 2.8kohms for a 2.8 amp motor current

The motors are:

http://homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25&products_id=81

Do you think the problem is with the G540 ?

Thanks

Joel

when he G540 powers on I can't have a radio on in the house the g540 creates too much interference

Portable / battery operated  or electric radio?

Does the interference go away or stay?

RICH

Hi,

It's a mains powered electric radio.

As soon as the G540 comes out of fault the inteference is constant. (i.e. whent he charge pump is set to off or when mach 3 is loaded)

Its really strong inteference.

Thanks

Joel

There are a number of reasons for the interference.
First you need to have something providing the interference and then you need to have a reciever of the interference.
So if you were to try a portable radio and had no interference then you know that  the noise, we'll call it noise since you can't understand the noise when heard, may
be  transmitted through the house wiring, or maybe the radio is picking it up ( antenna, wiring, internal components ) from the air waves. Lets keep it general and assume your "controller system"  is the transmitter. Now you should be able to bring the portable radio with the antenna near the controller system and actualy sense the electric field.
If no noise heard then its its definitely the house wiring. If noise then is it stonger near the box or cables? That would say your shielding is poor. So you should first have shielded
motor cables, the motors are inside a metal case so not coming from the motor body, all the controller components should be inside a metal box.

The best thing to do is eliminate the source of the noise.

How your controller is wired inside can a big difference.
For now...
RICH

BTW, bet when you get your motors silent you won't have radio interference.....
RICH

Rich,

Thanks for you advise...

I don't have a battery radio in the house but I will try to borrow one tomorrow.

For now I have discovered that the inteference is only there when the motors are plugged into the G540?  There is no inteference when the G540 is on and poweed but with no motors...

Not sure if that helps me but its interesting.

I am sure you are right that when my motors are silent i may have less inteference problems.

The cables are sheilded maybe they are not grounded properly...