Stepper IDC connector.

[reprap.org] :

"Connect Board to Arduino.
This part is very easy. Use the table below to determine what pins to hook up to what. Plug the IDC cable into the blue socket on the stepper controller board. If you look into the holes of the IDC plug, with the red stripe away from you, the top-right pin is #1. The pin to its left is #2...:"

Oddly, that's the first part of the instruction set that I don't really understand. "If you look into the holes of the IDC plug, with the red stripe away from you, the top-right pin is #1. The pin to its left is #2..."

What? I find that horribly ambiguous. I *think* I know what it means, and suspect that I could figure it out from the schematic with a multimeter, but a picture would really make that much better.

In all other respects I've found the documentation thus far to be really good.

L.

IDC connectors are pretty straight forward - the red wire is #1, and you just count upwards as you go across the ribbon cable. Don't worry too much about which pin it is on the connector. Do make sure that you've got your ribbon cable inserted the right way around (red wire next to the triangular pin 1 mark), and that your keyed IDC header is mounted the right way around on the PCB. I like to use rainbow colored ribbon cables, easier to count.

Eventually, with the motherboard, I think the intention is to use IDC headers at each end, so you don't have to worry about which wire it is at all.

Make sure you make a solid connection to the Arduino; any looseness at that end will cause intermittent problems later.

Break any of those parts yet? Hopefully we'll be printing out more soon!

Wade