[Yellowbeard]

Does anyone know where I can find a 3 axis controller board for 1200 in/oz motors? The ratings for the stepper motors I'm planning to use for the cnc machine I'm building are as follows:

Holding torque-Nm (oz/in) +/- 10% 8.7 (1208)
Rated voltage 2.7
Rated current per phase (amps DC) 6.0
Resistance (Ohms) +/- 10% .45
Induction (mH) +/- 20% typical 5.1
Motor length (mm) 118
Rotor inertia (g-cm^2) 2700
Weight (kg) 3.8

[TigerPilot]

Do you mean a board with the three drivers on it or will three single boards do? In the later case check out the 7A Gecko board. They advertise in this forum.

Yoram

[CNCgr]

Do you want to buy it or make it? I've build this one.

[CNCgr]

Oops, sorry, not enough amperage for your steppers (1.25A).

[Yellowbeard]

I'm talking about a single contrlloer board in which the Gecko drives are wired to. As well as limit switches, etc. The controller board also has inputs and output connections for such devices as solinoids to turn on a motor or water. Please see the attachment to see the configureation I'm talking about. I've looked at a number of controllers, but haven't found one with the ratings for the 6A 1200 in/oz motors.

[Yellowbeard]

Sorry I had wrong size on attachment. Here's the attachment.

[pminmo]

Yellowbeard,
That diagram is because of the serial interface. Gecko's are really the motor driver. What it calls a stepper motor controller is done a lot via PC software that is really designed to use a computers parallel port. Look at my drawing System electonics overview here: http://pminmo.com/
If your going to control from your parallel port, you have options. The simplest being to discrete wire from the gecko's to a db25 connector. The same goes for switches.
My open source 4 axis interface could be used by not installing the 4 IDC headers and hardwiring to the gecko:
http://pminmo.com/4axis/4axisinterface.htm
Others:
http://www.embeddedtronics.com/breakout.html
http://www.campbelldesigns.com/break...dr%20Mach1.htm
http://www.winfordeng.com/products/brk25.php

There are more, simple to more features. If you want to run your motors via a different connection than a parallel port your options on both hardware and software get limited.

Phil

[Yellowbeard]

Is this board capable of handling 6A 1200 in/oz motors? Are these boards ones that I build myself? I'm fine with using parallel port. I like concept of converting to USB. Have you heard of any problems with using USB? As far as software goes I know a lot of guys are using Mach2 which acts as the contrller board, but what if I want to use programs such as MasterCam, EdgeCam or Solidworks? I don't want to be locked into just one program to run my machine.

[pminmo]

You talked about using Gecko drives. I assume your talking of a 201 or 210? If so those handle the motors. Those are what handles the 6A, 2.7V motor. One gecko per motor. Each gecko has two signal inputs (minimum) that wire to the computer, step and direction. A little hard to read but look at the wiring diagram here:
http://www3.telus.net/public/aschoepp/cnctaig.html

Phil

[Yellowbeard]

Perhaps I'm wrong. I'm trying to make sence of the electronics for cnc machines. My understanding, from the seaching that I've done, is that the controller board controlled/regulated the motor drives, the motor drives controlled/regulated the motion of the motors. I was also under the belief that the controller board generated the signal which the motors utilize for proper movements. Instead of software which uses your pc to create the signal. That home and limit switches as well as error leds were wired to controller board. Connection from pc to controller board was obtained via a parallel interface card.

I'm building a cnc machine for cutting, shaping and polishing granite countertop. I've modified a Bridgeport Milling Machine head so that I can obtain spindle speeds necessary for cutting and polishing. The head is being put onto a 12' x 7' xyz table. The gantry ( X axis & Z axis ) is approx 500 pds. I'm using 2 1200 in/oz motors, belt driven and geared 2:1 to drive the gantry down the Y axis. Speed of machine is around 6-8 in/min. Which is cutting speed of diamond bits. I'm trying to find the electronics to run this machine as well as electronics which allow me to use whatever program I want to run it. Been looking at several programs. Haven't decided on one yet. Quite a few of them are clunky to use.

I appreciate and thank you for all of your advise!

[H500]

[QUOTE= I was also under the belief that the controller board generated the signal which the motors utilize for proper movements. Instead of software which uses your pc to create the signal. [/QUOTE]

This is not done with the typical low cost system. The pc is the controller. The programs are not hard to use.

[pminmo]

Turbocnc, Kcam, Mach 2 just to name a couple utilize the pc computing capabilities to control the machine. They are typically setup to use a direction and step signal for each axis. The Gecko's also have a step and direction signal. If your PC can drive the opto isolator on the Gecko's your can wire directly.

Phil

[ger21]

Perhaps I'm wrong. That home and limit switches as well as error leds were wired to controller board. Connection from pc to controller board was obtained via a parallel interface card.

You might be referring to a breakout board. Typically, that is what is connected between the parallel port and the motor drives. Most breakout boards have the connections for home and limit switches, and some also have relays which turn on spindles and coolant. But the software controls everything. Even with the high end stuff, the software still does the controlling, the difference is the steps are generated by hardware. Here is one of the most commonly used breakout boards used with Mach2/3.
http://www.campbelldesigns.com/breakout_board_plus.htm

You mentioned MasterCAM and Solidworks. Either can be used with any machine controller. Solidworks is basically just a CAD program that creates models, and MasterCAM creates the g-code from those models, which can be run on any control software. Although I can't see why you'd need either MasterCAM or Solidworks for working with granite countertops. You could easily get away with a $100 CAD program and a copy of SheetCAM, for $150. Unless you really want to spend $10k+ for MasterCAM and Solidworks.

[Yellowbeard]

I appreciate everyones help! My machine does need the ability to turn off and on the main motor for the milling head as well as turning on and off water for the diamond bits. The reason I mentioned MasterCam and Solidworks is because when a center water-feed finger bit is cutting out a sink hole it needs to reciprocate so that the bit will wear evenly from top to bottom. This is three dimensional and I thought perhaps that a program, such as MasterCam would be better suited for this type of process. I also need this machine to do engraving and shaped carvings. This is another reason, I thought, for MC.

[mike10]

delarange technologie sells 4 axis board with all limit home and emergancy stop and 4 relays build in.
it can handle up to 10 amps per axis
and its only $150
i bought one im very happy with it
the rapid speed is slow about 15 ipm on 12v power supply because this is not a chopper board
but for the money its the best deal out there

15 ipm = 150 rpm on my machine

link
http://www.dtllc.com/

the people there are extremly nice and helpful im 100% happy with there service and product

[Yellowbeard]

Slow speed would be fine for me since the bits can only cut so fast. About 6-8 in/min. My problem is move a 500 pound gantry. I planning to use 2 1200 in/oz stepper motors to drive this axis. These motors need to be sychronzied. Will this board allow me to sychronize motors? Are motors connected to this board directly or do you still use motor drives? (e.g. Gecko Drive)

[ger21]

IMO, you'll be wasting your money on anything other than Geckos for motors that big. THe Delagrange doesn't do microstepping, so resonance might be a problem, and at 7A, you'll need large resistors, which will waste a lot of power. You'll also need a much higher current power supply to run it.

As for syncing motors, Mach2 can do it in software. I haven't seen any hardware to do it.

Moving the tool up and down for a sink cutout is not really 3D. The software I use at work http://www.cadcode.com does this automatically on 2D .dxf conversions. Most engraving is 2D as well. What types of carvings are you talking about.

[Yellowbeard]

Shaped carvings for monuments. Grapes, leaves, hands, etc. Mariss at Geckodrive says; To synchronize two motors, use two drives with the STEP and DIRECTION lines in parallel.