[canman77]

OK...so I'm really new to all this and I think what you said makes sense. Until the non motion control onto isolated thing. I'll be researching that.

I looked up the Wantai controllers, I'd assume this one would fit the bill: CNC 4 2A 50VDC Bipolar 2PH Digital Micro 3D Wantai Stepper Motor Driver DQ542MA | eBay

Rated at 1-4.2A, 18-50v. When the motors are operating, voltage stays at around 19.4v. I'll run some more tests just to make sure it doesn't dip below 18v. The question I have is, is this basically a drop-in replacement for the existing driver boards in my controller? I see where the motor hooks up, to the controller, and I'd think the remaining connections are where my existing controller boards connect into the parallel port. Not sure if that's how it would work though.

[Jon.N.CNC]

Those drivers wI'll work very well for you. As for psu, it should be ok providing there are enough amps available. But upgrading psu at a later date if required is an easy task.

As for Bob. Wantai do a non motion control card the tb2520. Around $20. Will work fine for what you need. Then you simply plug a uc100 or uc300 into it and aside from getting uccnc installed on Pc your good to go.

With said arrangement I think you will be amazed how much better your machine will run. I tested quite a few motion control bob 2 in ones and none performed anywhere close to as smooth.

Edited: for spindle on and off and speed control you need a parallel port bob with a relay and pwm control. The pwm signal can be set up up via the uc100.

[canman77]

So here's the latest. The psu was running in 220v mode, thank you China. Switched it to 110v and I'm getting 24vDC now. While looking into the Wantai driver option, I contacted James at MassMind, and I ended up buying 3 of his 4A driver kits. Easy to build, easy to dial in, very cool. I managed to run into a snag, though, and I suspect this would have happened with the Wantai drivers as well.

I tested one of the drivers with the x-axis. Right off the bat it worked. I got it running left and right at 3000mm/min, with acceleration of 300 (not sure of the units here...is it mm/min/min?) with no stalling. I was super stoked. I had my step, direction, and enable signals coming from the existing parallel breakout board that came with the blue controller box. I had a 9v power supply that I hooked up to a 5v regulator (L7805) which gave me exactly 5v, and used that to send logic power to James' driver chip. I powered everything off and installed the heatsink. I decided to try to run everything from the existing parallel board, included the logic power, which is only about 4.2-4.5v from the parallel board. I hooked it up, didn't work. So I hooked up everything back to the way I had it, and now sometimes the motor will spin. Sometimes when I apply power nothing happens. But when it does spin, now it's only going in the left direction, regardless of whether I jog left or right.

I'm getting about 4.5v on the direction pin when I jog left, and 0v when I jog right. I hope I didn't connect something to the wrong spot accidentally and fry the new driver board...

[Jon.N.CNC]

So here's the latest. The psu was running in 220v mode, thank you China. Switched it to 110v and I'm getting 24vDC now. While looking into the Wantai driver option, I contacted James at MassMind, and I ended up buying 3 of his 4A driver kits. Easy to build, easy to dial in, very cool. I managed to run into a snag, though, and I suspect this would have happened with the Wantai drivers as well.

I tested one of the drivers with the x-axis. Right off the bat it worked. I got it running left and right at 3000mm/min, with acceleration of 300 (not sure of the units here...is it mm/min/min?) with no stalling. I was super stoked. I had my step, direction, and enable signals coming from the existing parallel breakout board that came with the blue controller box. I had a 9v power supply that I hooked up to a 5v regulator (L7805) which gave me exactly 5v, and used that to send logic power to James' driver chip. I powered everything off and installed the heatsink. I decided to try to run everything from the existing parallel board, included the logic power, which is only about 4.2-4.5v from the parallel board. I hooked it up, didn't work. So I hooked up everything back to the way I had it, and now sometimes the motor will spin. Sometimes when I apply power nothing happens. But when it does spin, now it's only going in the left direction, regardless of whether I jog left or right.

I'm getting about 4.5v on the direction pin when I jog left, and 0v when I jog right. I hope I didn't connect something to the wrong spot accidentally and fry the new driver board...

That is correct, you only get a voltage on direction pin in one direction. 0v returns driver to default direction, pulling upto 5v reverses driver direction.

If the voltage is not enough it will stay in 0v direction but 4.5v should be ok. Not familiar with mass mind driver. It's a tb driver though I believe so you definitely should not be running without heat sinks. But is the driver board definitely wanting 5v logic. Some run on 3v?

[James Newton]

Since "canman" is in my local area, I'm headed over tomorrow to troubleshoot. Normally I would ask the customer to send me really high resolution pictures so I can check the wiring and build, and then to return the kits for repair. I always do a repair for free after finding the issue. If they fry them again, the replacement chips are only $10. And it's rare that something actually fries the chips, but if this case, we eliminated most other possibilities... we can most more after troubleshooting tomorrow.

[James Newton]

It's up and running... none of the drivers were fried. Honestly not certain what was wrong... but the power supply was cutting out, and we can't push more than half the drivers rated current into the motors. Needs a better power supply. And everything needs to go into a box... calibration... should be ok then. Just to be clear: I do NOT recommend buying one of those CNC routers from China... but if you do, know that you will need to upgrade the drive electronics to get anywhere with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YBb5cRFeN4

[canman77]

I can't even begin to describe the night and day difference these drivers made. The machine actually moves at a decent rate and only stalls when you crank the speed up. With a better power supply, I don't expect that to be an issue!

And anyone looking to upgrade their system, definitely go through James. What a stellar guy. He came to my house and spent 2 HOURS helping me get it dialed in. If you can solder (and learning to solder isn't hard at all) order his kits. They're top notch. Boxing everything up is a little daunting, but wow...what a difference.

I still don't know anything about the mode and decay settings, and frankly, I don't even want to mess with them. The motors are running (and the Chinese motors really aren't that bad) and not stalling. I believe all three motors have different settings at the moment, which made it interesting to set the steps per in Mach3, but it's calibrated now, as best as I can get it without knowing more motor specs. Accuracy within 4/100's of a mm...good enough for what I'm doing!

Also, James -- I took apart the x-axis this morning and cleaned it off. I found these weird metal spiral shaving things! No doubt what was causing the stalling last night. Much quicker now!

[James Newton]

I knew there was something going on with that X axis! Glad it's running better now.

[truckeic]

I know this post is old but figured Jame may could help me out with my issue:
So this is what I have:
Power Supply
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...ply/kl-350-36/
Motor Drivers:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...rivers/kl5056/
Z Axis Stepper:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...lat-282-oz-in/
X and Y Stepper:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...aft-with-flat/

I have the current set to 4.2 for all the motors.

My x and y are fine but the Z stepper stalls. Wonder if maybe you could school me on why?

I did make a mistake and not set the Z axis to go to 1/2 current on idle so this thing has been getting hot not sure if I hurt it or not.
All of them are wired bi-polar parallel.

Any help is very appreciated as I have been working on this MIll for over a year and just loaded Gcode yesterday to find it stalls... Kinda kicked me in the nuts..

[109jb]

I know this post is old but figured Jame may could help me out with my issue:
So this is what I have:
Power Supply
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...ply/kl-350-36/
Motor Drivers:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...rivers/kl5056/
Z Axis Stepper:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...lat-282-oz-in/
X and Y Stepper:
https://www.automationtechnologiesin...aft-with-flat/

I have the current set to 4.2 for all the motors.

My x and y are fine but the Z stepper stalls. Wonder if maybe you could school me on why?

I did make a mistake and not set the Z axis to go to 1/2 current on idle so this thing has been getting hot not sure if I hurt it or not.
All of them are wired bi-polar parallel.

Any help is very appreciated as I have been working on this MIll for over a year and just loaded Gcode yesterday to find it stalls... Kinda kicked me in the nuts..

First question I have is did you wire the Z axis motor for bipolar parallel or bipolar series or unipolar. Should be parallel.

Second, I doubt the motor got too hot because they are rated for a case temperature of 100 deg C (212 F).

Third, I would bump the 36V PS up to 48V

Forth, you say you have all motors set for 4.2A but the X and Y steppers you linked are 2.8A steppers, so change the X and Y setting to 2.8A or you probably will damage those motors.

Now with the prelimiaries out of the way, you didn't sya whether it stalled during acceleration or after it got to max speed. How did you determine your max velocity and acceleration settings for each axis? Here is how I do it:

1. set acceleration and max vel to lowish values.
2. Increase max vel in increments, testing that axis after each Vel change. Do this until the stepper stalls.
3. Set Max Vel to 60% of the value you got from step 2.
4. Increase accel incrementally until the motor stalls while accelerating
5. Set accel to 60% of the value from step 4.

Now repeat this for all axes.