[snoyce]

Been playing around with my router today or more specifically the stepper drivers. I've been using a switched mode power supply from maplin (uk) here's the link

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...=43515&doy=3m4

£50 on there site but only £24 in store. Anyway when i initially set it up i couldnt get it to function reliably at 24v so i turned it down to 18v to get up and running and thought no more of it.

I was only able to get around 635mm (around 24.5") a minute on all three axis before the steppers were stalling i had the steppers setup to deliver around 1.4A to the motors. Today after fiddling i turned the current down to about 0.8A and the power supply up to 24v and hay presto im now reliably cutting at 1080mm (42.5").

The manual did elude to this being the case but my basic electronics knowledge let me down.

[BobWarfield]

Steppers like more voltage than you would think. Somewhere on the Gecko Yahoo Board is a note from Mariss (the guy that designs the Gecko drives) that says you give them 20x their rating! Wow!

Those drives are "smart" enough to limit the current so the motors don't burn out and can use that extra juice.

Best,

BW

[Netjams]

Gecko ROckX

[mind_nl]

So I can run my 6V steppers on lets say 24V as long as I don't go over the rated current (0.8A in this case)?

[BobWarfield]

So I can run my 6V steppers on lets say 24V as long as I don't go over the rated current (0.8A in this case)?

Head over to the Yahoo Gecko Drive Group and download a copy of "Gecko White Papers" from the Files section. It explains all sorts of useful things including this peculiar issue of giving your motors more voltage while limiting current to achieve better performance. In that paper Mariss suggests your supply provide from 3x to 25x the rated voltage.

Don't just go cranking your voltages though. His drivers (Geckos) do the right thing to limit current. If yours don't, you will burn up your motors.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/geckodrive/

Best,

BW

[mind_nl]

Thanks I'll go check that out. I have just ordered a hobbycnc driver board which should also take care of the current limiting.