[phantomcow2]

Im looking around at stepper drivers and came across this driver board from Delagrange Technologies.
http://dtllc.com/4xcnc10b.html
It claims 10amps, considering my motors are barely pushing 2 amps...that might work for me.
Does anybody have any comments regarding this board?
And say I was going to get it...besides 3 motors, cable, a computer, and wire, what else would I need to have it all going? I have a 28V 15A power supply so i assume i would need to find some way to reduce that to 5v.
Thanks

[H500]

Drive aint no not good. You will need to buy at least six 50+ watt resistors, costing about $10 each. And it don't do microstepping. For the price, look at hobbycnc or xylotex.

[philba]

It drives unipolar motors, not bipolar. Make sure you have unipolar motors.

I can't tell but it doesn't look like its a chopping driver.

No isolation on the inputs.

[phantomcow2]

I've already got unipolar motors.
I have a hobbyCNC board. BUt i feel like tI can never get it working right, something is always wrong. I dont blame the board, it seems to get pretty good reviews. BUt i want to try something new so i may end up selling this board and throwing in 2 driver chips.
I see it only does up to 1/2, 1/2 gave pretty bad vibration. I found better results with 1/8
Thats a good point you bring up about the resistors, i had no idea of their cost. Well, I will see...

What about something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Linistepper-Step...QQcmdZViewItem

[H500]

The linstepper's main disadvantage is that the drive will produce a LOT of heat, so you will need a large heat sink and a fan.

The hobby cnc board should be pretty troublefree unless you have a habit of disconnecting the motors with the power applied. Make sure your wires are solidly connected. Also, check your supply voltage and make sure it's not too high.

Perhaps your motors have a intermittent short?

[phantomcow2]

Well i learned the lesson of making sure motors are tight in there, after having to replace 2 driver chips. But today I tried turning on my power power supply after my old one failed for no obvious reason. Loe and behold the X motor was getting no voltage, the Z and Y were okay. Seconds later i look and see smoke coming out from the driver board and the X driver chip getting burning hot. I looked carefully and smoke was coming from one of the transistors and the transistor has a crack in the body. Not sure what its from.
I have tried the board with 6 different motors, and they are brand new.

As for the linisteppers, will they drive 2amp motors alright?

[H500]

Linstepper should work. Just remember to use a BIG heat sink and maybe also a fan, or board will sizzle.

[phantomcow2]

Should it work without modification to the board?
I dont know a heck of a lot about electronics. DUring this entire CNC conversion project, the mechanical aspect was fun and relatively easy. The electrical part has been a nightmare, and seems to be giving me more trouble than many.
But using the bridgeport at school, I think I can make one hell of a heatsink! I've got several fans sitting around I can use.
How is voltage to the motors adjusted on the linistepper? On the hobbycnc its just a variable capacitor, does the linistepper use anything similar?

[H500]

I'm no expert on the board, so it's best to email the person who designed and sells the board. In all likelyhood, you will set the current in the same way as the hobbycnc board.

But be warned. It will put out as much heat as a small room heater when driving 3 motors with 2 amps.

Instead of machining the heat sinks, it's cheaper to buy them. You can't use steel since it don't conduct heat that well, compared to aluminum or copper.

[philba]

A local PC recycler place is a great source of heat sinks that take just a little milling (really just cutting). I get old PC heat sinks and cut them to shape. Usually I can either get them free or $.50. They are really efficient. The old mac power PC head sinks work quite well. I can usually cut 3 or 4 out of one.

[phantomcow2]

Just so i know, what causes the linisteppers to put out so much heat? If these things can put out enough heat to heat a room, it sounds like I will need one hell of a heatsink.

[philba]

the schematic from the ebay seller shows bipolar transistors which are less efficient that mosfets. It also doesn't seem to have current limiting.

I think your hobbycnc driver, if you could get it working properly, would be a much better match to your steppers. The SLA7062 controller chip on it is pretty modern in its design - chopping with current limiting and microstepping.

[H500]

It's the design of the circuit. Chopper drives like xylotex and hobbycnc regulate the current to the motor by turning the power on and off 20,000 times a second. This is very efficient because only what is needed is supplied to the motor.

The linstepper limits power to the motor by "discarding" the excess voltage as heat. This allow for very smooth performance, but is extremely inefficient.

To illustrate it differently, suppose you have a manual transmission car with no gas pedal. How would you control the speed?

1. By applying the clutch until the desired speed is reached and then release it. Keep doing it to maintain speed.

2. By applying the brakes as hard as necessary to keep the speed constant.

You can see the second method is much smoother, but will waste a lot of gas and the brakes will get really hot.

[phantomcow2]

Thanks H500, that explanation made a lot of sense.
So because my motors are 2Amps, the Linisteppers will work but it will have to have to discard that much more?
I will see how the HobbyCNC works. Since it was just the X that had the problem, by putting the x motor in the A terminal and renaming the pinouts, the motors turn fine. And nothing gets very hot at all, but I am still putting a heatsink on + fan.
Eventually i would like to get Geckos and Servo motors like the guy on Balbots did, but i just don't see it as worth while for a small mill

[H500]

With your 28v power supply the linstep will discard about 24 volts worth of power as heat when the motor is at standstill. Note than you do NOT want to simply use a 5v supply since your motors will be useless.

I recommend you stay with the hobbycnc and try to figure out what's wrong. The linstep won't be an upgrade.

[phantomcow2]

Well all 3 axes are working. Dave is sending a replacement resistor, so hopefully that will fix the X.

[James Newton]

I'm very curious to hear how this worked out for phantomcow2. Did you figure out what was going wrong with the Hobby CNC driver? Are you happy with the current performance?

[phantomcow2]

Resistor solved the problem, I ended up giving the HobbyCNC board away. My friend made me a PIC based driver, that does not blow if the motors are disconnected.

[DTLLC]

Drive aint no not good. You will need to buy at least six 50+ watt resistors, costing about $10 each. And it don't do microstepping. For the price, look at hobbycnc or xylotex.

UMmmmmmmmmmm You can buy 50 watt resistors for $3 - $4 Ea. at :

http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm

The 4XCNC10B will do everything the Hobbycnc board will do and more!

Dave

[DTLLC]

Drive aint no not good. You will need to buy at least six 50+ watt resistors, costing about $10 each. And it don't do microstepping. For the price, look at hobbycnc or xylotex.

The 4XCNC10B is a very simple and reliable drive board. I offer free Tech help to all via e-mail and phone. There should not be any problems with my drives. If there is please call or e-mail me so we can make your machine run. You can Buy 50 WATT resistors for $3 - $5.50 depending on were you by them.

David Delagrange, Owner
Delagrange Technology LLC
4024 Fairfield Avenue
Fort Wayne, IN 46807

Phone: (260) 557-9280
Hours: Monday-Friday, 5:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.dtllc.com