[ptfo]

Hi
I hope someone can help. I have built a CNC machine using stepper motors that were salvaged from Diablo Daisywheel printers a long time ago.
I am using emc2 and a gecko g540 driver. I am having great trouble in setting the system up and I am wondering if the details I have on the steppers are correct. Label on the motors is 'DC Stepper Motor Type AS-637 Clifton Litton'. I have been unable to find anything about this motor on the internet. Details I found relate to motors from an earlier version of the motor with 7.5deg step angle = 48 steps for 360 deg.
Questions I have, does anyone know anything about this motor?
Or is there a process I can use in emc2 to figure out what the step angle is?
Thanks

[doorknob]

I don't know anything about that motor, and I have only just started to familiarize myself with EMC2.

Having said that, though, if your immediate goal is to find out what the step angle is, an easy way to do that would be to throw together a simple, slow repetition-rate pulse generator, and apply the signal from the pulse generator to the step input of your motor driver, then just count the steps for a full revolution of the motor shaft.

For example, Gecko has published a simple step and direction pulse generator circuit that could probably be adapted easily enough for your use (I'm not sure what the pulse rate is or how slow it could be made to go - and you might want to add an LED to indicate each pulse occurrence, or a debounced momentary contact step switch to do manual pulsing).

See the following Gecko support page for the circuit: Support

If you are able to single-step the motor using a jog mode of EMC2, then you wouldn't even need to build such a circuit to accomplish your goal.

[cyclestart]

If you feel comfortable hooking up that motor stepconf could help figure out the step angle.
I don't think any misconfiguration in emc will cause damage but be fully aware I'm an electron idiot. Whether the g540 gets along with the motor may be another issue. You'll eventually want a current set resistor, but how without the motor specs ? Hope someone can help identify.

The included screen shot shows some stepconf settings. If the motor is 48 steps/rev the test run should spin the motor 360 clockwise followed by 360 counterclockwise for as long as you care the watch. (Or at least it sounds good in 3 a.m. theory )

[kiwichris]

Have you got the motors moving at all?

If you have it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out...

As an aside, the gecko is a 10x microstepper, and not may 7.5 degree steppers are going to work well microstepped if I recall correctly.

[ptfo]

Thanks to all who responded.
Got motor specs, many thanks to Moog, the company that bought out Clifton Litton.
Motor specs 7.5 deg, 2.8A, 5v.
Reason for problem was microstepping not set to 10 in EMC2, only reference I found to this setting was in the pin details at the end of the g540 manual.
Regards