Over the past 10 months I've been building a benchtop cnc machine from an old taig lathe, a crosslide table and some metal stock. The mechanical aspects of the machine are nearly finished. I was lucky enough to recieve 3 vexta nema 23 2.8a 4.2v 1.8dps bipolar (4 wire) steppers from a friends father who is an electrical engineer for a large industrial printer company. I have these motors mounted to my machine, they turn 1/2" 20tpi leadscrews with preloaded bearings. The led screwnuts are made from acetal and are adjustable for backlash. Now that I have the machine built, Im starting to think about the electronics. I have researched a few different motor controllers. In the begining I was considering stepperworld or hobbycnc boards, but now that I have bipolar steppers this is not an option. Later on I was looking into a xylotex board, the only concern I have with that is how delicate the thing is, you pretty much cant breath on it with out possibly damaging the driver chips. This is a concern for me because I have limited knowledge of electronics (the steppers have a wire diagram). Idealy I would like a motor controller with some form of protection. If I happen to make a minor mistake with the set up I would rather not have to buy another board. I'm willing to spend up to about $600 Canadian. I wouldnt mind paying more if I knew for sure I would never have to buy another whether its a controller board or chopper drives.
I dont need a plug and play. I would rather save a bit of money and assemble the parts myself. So my question is what kind of control system would you guys recomend?
I briefly took a look at gecko 203v drives, they are very appealing.
Mike