What resources do you have avaialble in the Philippines? I don't know if you have a Radio Shack (or similar electronics components store) where you live. Would you have to rely on mail order?
On one extreme, driver boards can be purchased ready-made. Mariss Freimanis makes the Gecko drivers, and he is a wonderful person to deal with...lots of support from him, so you actually get your machine working. Other companies also make pre-built driver boards...Geckos just seem to be setting the standards at the moment.
On the other extreme, you can build your own. Of course, a sophisticated driver circuit is rather complex, and would be difficult to build if you don't have some skills in electronics. The simplest possible driver is just some large transistors and some diodes...the complexity goes up sharply from there, as the sophistication and efficiency improve.
As far as the motors, they're commonly available on the surplus market. Does anyone where you live ever junk LASER printers? The old HP LaserJET I, II, and III printers all have a single stepper motor in them...100 oz in, which is pretty decent. Alternately, keep an eye open on eBay for some cheap motors. They do show up on a regular basis.
-- Chuck Knight  |