Hello everybody,
I've managed to salvage an old Nema34 Minebea unipolar stepper motor (6 wires), which has the following characteristics: 14V/phase, 0.7A/phase.
I'm planning to do a project with an Arduino board (not exactly a CNC machine, but I do need precision in driving a lead screw), and I was wondering what kind of a driver I should get, provided that I want to minimize costs on the one hand, but I do want it to perform on the other.
If I understand correctly:
1. 6-wire unipolar motors can be hooked up to operate as bipolar motors, either in full-coil (leave the center tap hanging at each phase) or half-coil (connect to one of the phase wires and the center tap at each phase) mode.
2. Due to the above, I could get away with relatively cheap, mainstream (bipolar) drivers, like even the Easy Driver (750mA max), or the TB6600.
3. The low current rating of 700mA means that it has high inductance, i.e. it will not run very fast.
4. Connecting it in half-coil mode would retain the same characteristics as unipolar operation mode, but full-coil connection would result in more torque, but also 4 times the inductance, making it even slower (yet more powerful).
I was wondering first whether this is correct, but also:
a. What current should I supply to the full-coil bipolar connection of the motor? Is it still the same 700mA?
b. Which driver would you recommend for me to get?
Thanks in advance.