[aus10eww]

I've got two old stepper motors for an old cnc lathe that need new drivers. the only specs i can find are:

Powermax
P22NRXC-LNN-NS-00:
Torque: 238
Resistance parallel: 0.78
Current parallel: 3.1
V: 2.418
Watts: ~7.254
Inductance parallel: 3.1mH

What are some cheap drive options for a 3 amp stepper. Would a linistepper driver work?

[109jb]

First, I am by no means an expert, just getting started onmy first CNC conversion, but have been doing a lot of research and have found that Gecko's are the cream of the crop. Your specs would indicate needing a driver that can give 56V and 3.1A. The Gecko G251 can do 50V at 3.5A. You would be a tad slower but it is much cheaper than the other Geckos at $69. Other options are the Keling drivers which I have read good things about, and the Chinese TB6560 drivers off E-bay. The TB6560 is only good to about 24V though. Below is a link to where you could buy the G251 or the Keling drives. For the Chinese driver search ebay for "single axis TB6560"

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc...-motor-drivers

[johnmac]

Skip the Chinese drives. If you have a problem, good luck! The bitterness of poor quality and customer service will linger long after the few dollars saved is forgotten. Go with Gecko and don't look back!

[doorknob]

What are some cheap drive options for a 3 amp stepper. Would a linistepper driver work?

How many wires do the motors have?

The linistepper is designed to drive a unipolar motor (5, 6, or 8 wires).

3 amps is on the high side of its range - if you were to put 3A through a linistepper you would want to have a hefty heatsink with a lot of air moving past it.

[aus10eww]

The motors are 8 wire so the linistepper would work. What voltage would you recommend running them at?

[H500]

Linistepper is only good for up to about 1.5 amp. If you want best performance with those motors, you need around 48v.

[doorknob]

Linistepper is only good for up to about 1.5 amp. If you want best performance with those motors, you need around 48v.

While it might be "wise" to limit the Linistepper to no more than 1.5 amps per phase, especially if your cooling is marginal, the documentation claims that you can go higher as long as you keep it cool enough.

From LiniStepper, lini, stepper, linear, 6th microstep, linear microstepping stepper motor driver, constant current linear driver, circuit Linistepper boards, LiniStepper kit, hobby stepper, robot stepper driver kit, CNC stepper driver kit:

If you require currents greater than 1.5A/phase you will need to
change some parts values in the linistepper.

The main transistors are rated for max 5A. They CAN be used for
motor currents of up to 5 amps/phase. (You can even purchase darlington
transistors the same physical size good for over 10 amps!)

However using currents greater than 1.5A/phase will cause some headaches;

* heat sensitivity increases (more temp drift)
* much larger heatsink will be needed (more heat)
* sense resistors will need to be larger wattage type (more heat)
* microstepping tuning resistors need to be changed
* you will need electronics skills and test equipment!

I won't go into great detail here but it is viable to get up to 3A/phase
from the linistepper but currents of 5A/phase etc are not very sensible.


That page then goes into even more detail on considerations for running with high currents.

[H500]

Keep in mind this is a linear drive. To match the performance of my system, 34v will be required. At 3 amps/ph, that's 143W per motor, or 428w for 3 motors. Most of the power is wasted as heat.

[doorknob]

Dissipating a lot of heat in a linear driver is indeed a downside of the Linistepper, however it looks like the goal of the OP was to find an inexpensive driver solution, rather than to maximize performance, and so the Linistepper would be one way to meet that goal.

I agree with you that the OP may not want to crank up the voltage too high on those puppies.

[jonmessenger]

the keling 4030 will handle up to 3 amps, (I actually am using one on a 906 oz in nema 34 at 3.1 amps) they run about $40.00, I have been running them on two seperate machines, my X3 mill about one year, and my homebuilt IntraCut CNC 48 X96 machine for 6 years, I can't say enough good about these drives, they are inexpensive, reliable as the dickens, and the folks at Keling, now Automation Technologies Inc. have been as good as gold to me, and my brother. (I think they are reading my mind though because sometimes it seems they send me the tracking number for my order minutes after i place it, kinda creepy but worth it )

All in all they are my first choice for inexpensive great preforming drives and motors

(not a paid spokesman, it is just so rare these days to get good service that I think it is worth praise)

[RomanLini]

The Linistepper is not a good choice for those motors due to the amps they require.

The SLAmStepper will drive 3 amp motors and is a simple kit (since you asked about the Linistepper kit);
SLAm Stepper Motor Controller, Allegro SLA7062M, Unipolar

I use SLAms on my machine and I'm very happy with them.