I have mounted steppers on my mill/drill table and am going to operate them with the pro board. I have a 4 axis Hobbycnc pro board operating my foamcutter and want to use the same power supply. They won't be running at the same time and my case is large enough to mount 2 boards inside.
I have a problem and want to ask here before carrying on and letting out some smoke. I want to make a daughter board to go with the main board that will have (3) 555 timers and direction switchs connected to it. Is it possible to break the trace on the board so that I can run them manually by variable pot (speed) and DPST switch for direction. In my thinking I would install switchs to either use the pc or the daughter board timing. They would be connected between the driver pin #10 step clock input and the other at pin#16 which is the forward reverse. I will use the same power for all the connections but also on the daughter board install a separate voltage regulator so that I don't overpower the SLA7078 chips.
One reason for this is those little jobs that you don't need to do a whole lot with and you do not have to keep going to the computer. If a control box is mounted on the machine I would not have to turn the hand dials with the steppers connected. The main reason is that I wrecked my sholder 5 years ago and cranking by hand just puts me back on more pain killers which I take all the time but do not want an increase.
Any advice or help would be appreciatted and if it works I would document it and put it on here. Some other people must also be in the same situation.
Thanks, John