[ger21]

Any comments on the basic plan?

Have you seen Swede's mill at http://www.5bears.com ?

[vladdy]

The basics sound pretty tight, and should give good serviceability with reasonable accuracy and a half decent product life span..
Lots of good controller lately on ebay, and the 5 phase seem to be going for next to nothing, there were some Micom controllers for less than 50 for a set of three, around 6a I think, and anoter fellow had matching 600oz hold motors for less than 20 each, no bids when I looked at them..

Most hobby / light small shop builders want bi or uni polar controllers / steppers, the better 5 phase stuff seems to getting very little action on ebay..just the choices are more limited from what I've seen


enjoy..

[JavaDog]

What are the drawbacks of the 5-phase stuff?

[ger21]

Expensive, unless you can find them on Ebay.

[vladdy]

I backed out on these three Mycom five phase controllersat $36.00 [item 3852441603 on ebay] because I won some IMS controllers that I had bid on earlier.. there were a couple of other sellers that had matching 5 phase motors for not much more..
drawback is finding replacement spares as well [easily and cheaply], especially if you want identical units ..just in case..

[RotarySMP]

Use ball screws. I used good quality metric ACME equivelent on my lathe, and am now converting to ball screw. If you preload bronze nuts, they wear faster and loose preload. You end up constantly asjusting them and still not acheiving consistant backlash.

You won't need 600-800 Ozin motors for what you are describing. You will need fast NEMA23 ~200 ozin motors. Something like the powermax ones maybe.

[MHINK]

I just built a 3 axis controller using 3 ramsey stepper kits. Total price was $112.00.
I just fed the step and direction signals from the bd25 parallel port to the boards, and was able to drive a small bipolar stepper I bought from all electronics. Do goolge search for ramsey kits and all electronics. My whole home made cnc router cost about $200.00.
-Mhink

[BeanO]

I decided to build my own stepper drivers, so I got some stuff from www.digikey.com ..capacitors,resistors,breadboard,controllerchip, and a 26oz/inch steppermotor...cost about 100$..and was delivered in less than 48hours..
yup, RadioShack sucks ass... you couldn't build a flashing LED from the stuff they have there.
Anyways... I ordered the wrong controllerchip....It wouldn't accept direction/pulse without ANOTHER microcontroller/Direction/pulse decoder...
I was able to haywire it together enough to make it go a step at a time either diretion... But I had to use Mcodes... >>>lots of them

I think i've found the perfect chip combination, its a ...297 and a 298 ...(see link)... and I can build them for pretty cheap...less than 20 bucks an axis. AND digikey has tecksheets that i can understand...(it helps when you're trying to put the stuff together)
http://rocky.digikey.com/scripts/Pro...&V=497&M=L297D

Oh... 26in/oz is barely enough to drive a 1/4 UNF(well greased/no load) leadscrew...

THANX, for all the help...

PS...just got a job at Standard Machine/Hamilton gear(It's a big company,/no personal projects) ... So I probably will not be able to make my little machine at my new company...sigh

[Chris401]

You might try the stepperworld.com controllers. I think some of the low power boards are in your price range.

[MHINK]

I have used controller kits, #158 and #179 from this source
http://www.kitsrus.com/
They are inexpensive and work well. Make sure the PCB and schematic are the same on the step and direction external pins, as the PCB trace varied from the diagram.
You can't buy the parts for what the kit costs.
-Mark

[chronon1]

excellentt 1st project -- already enuf uses to justify it 6x6 or even 4x4 .. cheap , low torque steppers, cheap fine pitch rod ( like 5/16 " x 32 or something) - easy to hand work small amounts of material -- tons of accuracy not critical for learning project - probably the controller is the most expensive part.. unipolary is easier and cheaper than bipolar steppers -

engravers are dirt cheap at discount stores .. this is the all time winner for learning machine ---

[BeanO]

Arrrggg!!!... Ok, I've done enough learning, I know the difference between unipolar and bipolar, servo and stepper, and I even have one motor hooked up and tuned to my laptop,(4 more, with control chips, ready to go), linear rails are on there way(Ebay), just missed a bid on some 6mm ballscrews(Very Nice, would have outbid him, but didn't get home in time), Gonna go nuts, If i don't make something move + cut in 3D, using Gcode.
Yup, I've kinda forgot about my 2"x2" travel, using floppy drive motors.
But, I've learned LOTS, thinking/trying to build it.
BTW, a Super Cheap and Easy controller is a single chip, no diodes/ transisters/ capacitors/ resisters, no Nothing needed !! - ONE CHIP! .. 2 Bucks!!, dir/step using parrallel port... (1.0 amps? up to 12 volts.. no chopper).. I forget who makes it, but #'s are:
UCN5804B (unc5804 are the important #'s)
^0042
D041554

I think i need to build a decent machine first, but I'd love to build the tiny machine i first thought of, 2 by 2 travel, maybe 1/2 on the Z, using EASY to find parts, A complete machine, fully Gcode capable, that u can pick up with two fingers... easy to build, easy to understand, a beginner project.

Chris.

Ps: Thanks RotorySMP!!, I love TurboCNC... It is way better than the fancy/Slow windows based programs!

[MHINK]

BeanO
I found a kit using this chip, click here
http://mpja.com/productprint.asp?product=8409+KT
But couldn't find just the chip by itself.
There are other kits which are more capable available too. Try kitsrus.
-Mark

[joecnc2006]

BeanO
I found a kit using this chip, click here
http://mpja.com/productprint.asp?product=8409+KT
But couldn't find just the chip by itself.
There are other kits which are more capable available too. Try kitsrus.
-Mark

only rated for motors below 1.25a

[vladdy]

Beano,
where in sask are you located, might have something of interest for you..

thanks

[BeanO]

I've been in Saskatoon for over a year, Anything is interesting now!...And I finally broke down and bought a little pisspot car that's exellent on gas... SUV is parked.

Ps I thought that "allegro" made the unc5804 chip... but their search engine says NO...Anyhow I bought 5 of them (and motors) off of Ebay... they are really easy to hook up!

[txcowdog]

My big question in this project is... what is that on your cat's head?

[BeanO]

idunno!! not my picture, not my cat(i don't like cats, im a dog person), just got the pic from a dating site(some chick), and copied it(it made me smile).

but it does look like a lime skin....???,,...
doesn't it?

[yamingf]

you can try to build a laser engraver from a used and cheap CNC router, get a really old cnc router at less than $1000 and a laser controller and/glass tube to build your own laser. you can get a laser machine within $1800 in this way

[xudeen]

Well, since this old thread has been resurrected, any progress on the itsy bitsy tiny CNC engraver?