@ptegler DOOOHL! (brain fart ol' age) forgot stupid 6 pin stepper motor connectors (uses 4 of 6 pins) or NOT straight across coil to coil.
1-4 is one coil and 3-6 is the other coil (2 and 5 are not used) So the little adapter I made to go from the original Duet3d cable to the Ethernet2 board, I connected wrong. Swapped the two center pins of the mating 6 pin adapter connector (3 &4) and viola'.
all is well.
....head back under my rock
oh...P.S. love the idea of mounting the Orbiter directly on the Smart Effector, even printed up and had it mounted. But I've found higher speeds with less vibration artifacts leaving the extruder 'flying' as designed by the TEVO team (with my own adaptation to the flying bridge of course) works much better with lass mass to sling around
ptegler