which breakout board to go with TB6600 drivers?
I'm thinking of these to drive a 4 axis nema 17 bipolar mini lathe: TopDirect Upgraded TB6600 4A 9-42V Stepper Motor Driver Controller tb6600 32 Segments 2/4 Phase Hybrid Stepper Motor Driver Board
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...9I2AQIQH&psc=1
could anyone suggest the upstream hardware to use? I'm considering a Elegoo UNO R3 Board ATmega328P ATMEGA16U2 with USB Cable for Arduino off amazon. I assume I'd need an arduino too but anything else?
Or, could you recommend a suitable budget kit with everything included?
Re: which breakout board to go with TB6600 drivers?
You are very sparse in your description of what you want to achieve. You said that you are planning a 4 axis mini lathe using NEMA 17 steppers.
1. NEMA 17 steppers are very small and have very little torque. Except for the smallest of machines they are not suited for much. Give us a picture or something of the machine and we can assist better.
2. 4 axis lathe - Normally lathes are only 2 axis, so I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean a 4 axis milling machine? Again, a picture or link to the machine would help
3. TB6600 - the one you linked may be questionable. There are many many TB6600's out there that are not built correct and don't comply with the TB6600 datasheet specs. This leads to problems with weak output, output that is not clean, etc. There are some that are OK, but there are so many that aren't that I would personally stay away from TB6600's. There is a huge thread all about these problems. It costs more money, but if you want a good driver, here is one I use that has performed flawlessly and can drive many steppers. I personally have used TB6600's successfully, but have come to the conclusion that the headaches aren't worth the cost savings.
https://www.amazon.com/STEPPERONLINE...70_&dpSrc=srch
4. Breakout boards - This depends on how you want to control the machine. If you want to use Mach3, LinuxCNC, or similar, then you will need a PC with a parallel port, or you will need an external pulse generator like a smoothstepper for mach 3, or a mesa board for linuxCNC. Other options include the UC series of controllers that work with Mach or their own software. There is just too much here that is unknown from your description
5. Arduino's. You mentioned using an Arduino, which is possible, and is cheap. You could run Grbl on an Arduino and the clones are only a few dollars. Doing this you don't need a breakout board as the stepper drivers can be wired directly to the arduino. However, if you are really building a lathe and want threading capability then that is only experimental in Grbl right now. If you don't need threading but need 4 axis, there are a few 4 axis ports of Grbl that work with an Arduino Mega 2560. The Grbl route uses just about any platform for the user interface (old PC, laptop, netbook, tablet, android, windows, mac, linux, old phone, and the list goes on). Whatever is used as an interface simply sends a serial stream via usb to the arduino and the arduino handles everything else. If you only need 3 axes, an Arduino Uno will do. I run a mill with Grbl right now and it is stable and reliable. It has some limitations in what codes can be run but there is a Fusion 360 post-processor for CAM generation which alleviates most of the limitations. Can discuss more if we can get more info on what exactly you want to do.
In general, based on your post, I would hold off buying anything because it seems you need to get some education on what work well. If you buy now I fear you would not be satisfied and throwing your money away. We can help if you provide more info on your project.
