3-Axis Stepper Controller

[jjwl891]

(continued from my last post)

does anyone know where I can get these parts?

 

[cncmadman1]

I am pretty sure only 5 or 6 wire steppers will work
I purchased my parts from www.circuitspecialists.com

 

[alberto2]

CNCMADMAN, G00 means quick point to point positioning and G96 means constant cut speed so your expression "G00 G96 X.0 Y.0 Z.02" does not have sense.

 

[cncmadman1]

You are wise to notice!!!!!!!!!!!
Many great machining to you!

 

[MP1]

Ahh! The last post reminded me. Here is some information regarding the CNC programming for those who want to write their own programs or for those who are just interested. Not sure where I got this file, but it has lots of information regarding the CNC commands.
MP

CNC_Programming.pdf

 

[alberto2]

how to connect an eight threads stepper motor to the 3-axis stepper controller board? :

 

[MP1]

This is a bipolar stepper. This actually has wires to each of the coil ends in your motor. If you have a diagram of your stepper, you will see 4 coils in sets of two. A 6 wire stepper simply has these connected together inside the motor. You will connect the 2 wires at the center of the 2 coil set together, changing it from a 8 wire stepper to a 6 wire stepper motor. Perhaps I have not explained it well. If you still do not understand, I will find some diagrams and post them.
-MP

 

[kayakman1]

I have some bipolar stepper motors that I would like to be able to drive. Where can I get some complete information on the stepper controller that you are discussing? It would fill my requirements I think.

Best regards / Anders Molin

 

[kayakman1]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm I just found the prodject documentation and saw that the driver was for unipolar steppers. These have less tourq than the bipolar if Im not misstaken. Can the driver be used for bipolar steppers or must I find another driver? If so is the case, does anyone know where to find such a driver?

Best regards / Anders the CNC newbii

 

[MP1]

More than 20 pages of results with this google search for bipolar stepper driver --> http://www.google.com/search?q=bipolar+stepper+driver&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N
MP

 

[MP1]

In the case that you need higher voltages for a stepper motor, you normally trigger the base of a NPN power transistor and run the higher voltage throught the transistor. The rest of the circuit is just used for triggering and remains the same.

MP

 

[jjwl891]

Does anyone know how to test the controller with out actually hooking it up to a computer?

Also, can I use a 100V .01UF capacitor instead of the required 63V .01UF capicator?

 

[MP1]

You can make a clock circuit or basically a pulse generator with a 555 timer so that it sends pulses to the step input of the chip. You can check this with the DIR in either position as this will determine the direction of the motor. This is actually a good pre-test to insure you are not shorting out your PC output board.
The 100V capacitor will work perfect in the place of the one rated at less voltage.

MP

 

[jjwl891]

Would it be possible to manually control the stepping of the controller? I would like to be able to push a button and the motor would do 1 step. I think you would place a N.O. pushbutton switch between the step input of the chip and something else. What would it be?

All comments are appreciated!

 

[MP1]

It would be a 4.7K ohm resistor tied to the 5 volt buss.
If the switch is not very good and has a lot of bounce, you might get additional triggering. If this is the case, you will have to add a debounce circuit to the switch, which is just a digital gate and some components around it.

1 step is not much. You might have to put your finger on the shaft of the stepper motor to notice the movement.

MP

 

[alberto2]

do you have any photography of your projects?
I am realizing the mechanical part and would like if possible some advice... please.. ???

 

[MP1]

alberto, I do not have any pictures. What would you like to know about? Perhaps I can take some.

MP

 

[alberto2]

I have found a lot of pictures of engraving machine on the web but no one wich use the 3-Axis Stepper Controller board that we use.

I have some questions:

1)I have three stepper motors with 6 wires:
(red) (red/white) (green) (green/white) (black/orange) (yellow/red)
how to connect them to the board? (1.8 step/

View attachment 35506

 

[MP1]

Alberto, here is an internal diagram of a 6 wire stepper. You can measure the resistance of the different combinations of wires to see which wires go to which coils on your motor. The power supply connects to the center tap of both. When the outside of the coils are grounded one at a time in sequence it causes a step.
To know how much voltage it will handle is usually a part of the numbers stamped on the motor. Most small motors such as this are 5V. If the numbers on the side do not give an obvious clue, you might be able to find the manufacturer's website for the information.

MP

View attachment 35510

 

[katsujinsetsunin]

Hello all!
I am considering building the 3-axis stepper controller - I was able to salvage several Sankyo-Denki stepper motors from old IBM printers, but I'm not sure whether they will work. The motors are rated at 4.1 V, 1.1 A. Assuming I wish to operate a CNC machine in half-step mode, each motor will draw approx. 2 Amperes - with three motors (one for each axis), I think I will need a power supply able to provide at least 6 Amperes *plus* the current requirement for the controller board itself. I am looking for suggestions regarding 1) power supply size (voltage and current), and 2) whether it would be possible to use a simple voltage divider to reduce the motor voltage (the circuit notes indicate that a minimum of 8V must be supplied to the board - dividing this in half should protect the stepper motors from burning out...right? Thank you all in advance - sorry for the newbie questions!