[erkiwi]

Hi .I am building a small cnc machine with a travel of X600mm Y400mm Z200mm.Lead screws are 1/2" x 13 unc.I would like to make it 3 axis to start with and add a 4th axis at a latter date.I have 4 stepper motors with matching drivers from motionking which are 34HS9803(uni-polar) 8 wire.2.7 rated current.1.9 phase resistance.8.6 phase inductance. 1.8deg.step angle.What is my best option for a controller to get these motors running?Is a pc based controller better?I would like to do 3D contour milling and at a loss of how to get my tool path from the PC to drive the motors?I believe that these motors have a bi-polar rating of 3.8A parallel,or 1.9A series but not sure.Can anyone help.
Eric

[paulC]

PC based systems are the easiest way to go. If you can build a controller yourself check out Phills site. http://www.pminmo.com
There are plenty of controllers that you can buy complete.
Gecko is popular.
http://www.geckodrive.com/index.cfm
MACH3 is excelent software for driving the machine. http://www.artsoftcontrols.com

Paul

[Kipper]

Hi .I am building a small cnc machine with a travel of X600mm Y400mm Z200mm.Lead screws are 1/2" x 13 unc.I would like to make it 3 axis to start with and add a 4th axis at a latter date.I have 4 stepper motors with matching drivers from motionking which are 34HS9803(uni-polar) 8 wire.2.7 rated current.1.9 phase resistance.8.6 phase inductance. 1.8deg.step angle.What is my best option for a controller to get these motors running?Is a pc based controller better?I would like to do 3D contour milling and at a loss of how to get my tool path from the PC to drive the motors?I believe that these motors have a bi-polar rating of 3.8A parallel,or 1.9A series but not sure.Can anyone help.
Eric

I'm a bit thick but it's a Duck-billed Platypus... i.e a contradiction in terms. 8 wire.2.7 rated current changes to 3.8A parallel /1.9A series, which may be beside the point if they are matched...Is there anything to connect these to the PC? a breakout board for example? Is it a post processor you need for existing software? when you say "Is a PC based controller better" do you mean "Is there an alternative?" Thats me lost But I win on questions lol have a beer mate, Keith

[paulC]

Eric said he had steppers and drives so I am assuming all he needs is something to provide direction and step signals.
Paul

[SORCHEROR]

first off,lets start with the power supply,do you have one yet?and what volts and amps is it?next what drivers do you have?,nema 34 motors need a larger driver,small hobby boards will only burn out prematurely,do you have a breakout board?you will need one,and a printer cable.hopefully you have a pc?
download mach2 or 3 software from artsoft,its free for the demo,let me know the answers and ill get back to you
steve

[erkiwi]

I do not have a power supply yet and the drivers are matched to the 34 motors,What I need to know is what comes next,a breakout board?if so what size?
Eric

[erkiwi]

Yes Paul that is correct ,What kind and size board do I need
Eric

[alexccmeister]

Check out CNC4PC.com. They have a range of breakout boards. For power supply, try http://www.mpja.com/listitems.asp?dept=3&main=1
They have a whole range of power supply from 5V up to 50V. Great stuff.

[paulC]

Just to confirm, what drivers do you have. Are they listed here.
http://www.motionking.com/support/st...or_drivers.htm
This will give us an idea of the power supply you need.
The CNC4PC breakout boards look pretty good. There are a lot of choices out there but nothing locally in NZ that I know of. Aussie may have something. Basically, you get what you pay for. Opto isolation is good. Saves you blowing up your PC if something goes wrong. Boards with charge pumps ensure the PC has not stopped controlling the system and solid state relays will allow you to turn on your router using commands from the PC. You can go cheap or for something with a lot of features, up to you and your budget. Do you have any electrionics experience?
Paul

[erkiwi]

Hi Paul.
The drivers are Hybrid stepper motor drivers Model:2H090MH.I only have basic electronic knowledge but can get help with the set up,I just need to know what I need to get my tool path from the pc to drive the motors.

[paulC]

Thanks to Phils web site we have this link.
http://www.geckodrive.com/photos/Step_motor_basics.pdf
Says 8 wire parallel connected motors are about 3% more efficent.
The issue is the 2.7A rating. I am assuming that that is per winding so the driver should be set to a current of 2.7 x 2 =5.4Amps. Your drivers have a maximum setting of 5.0A So I think you should use this setting.
I would ask other forum members to check this. I don't want to steer you into burning up a motor.

If this current rating is confirmed you need about 15 Amp supply at between 40 and 60 volts AC ( Your drives appear to have on board rectifiers and regulators) You could find one big transformer of this rating or 4 smaller 5amp transformers. One for each drive. The higher the voltage the faster your motors should go. Do not try to exceed the maximum voltage of 60V.
It also appears you need a sperate 17volt 1 amp AC input to each drive. One 17V 4A transformer connected to all drives should work for this.
Thats a whole lot of transformers but being smaller they should be easier to find.
You also need a PC with a printer port (Beware of laptops. They may not work for this) If you cant find a PC with a parallel port you can get a PCI Parallel port card to go into your PC.
You need a breakout board. If you want 4 axis this needs to have at least 8 outputs and you will want as many inputs that you can get for limit switches, home switches and ES.
You can run an evaluation copy of mach3 until you decide if it is what you want. The demo limits the code to 1000 lines. More than enough to start with.
This will get your motors working.
You will still have to generate gcode. There is some free stuff around. Don't rush into this until you know what you want to do with your machine. Have a look at vcarve you would be suprised at what you can do with this and there is a demo available.

Paul

[erkiwi]

Thanks Paul things are a lot clearer now you have been a great help.Good luck with the test match this Friday night.

Eric