I recently purchased a NEMA 23 3 axis stepper motor kit from Keling...The one that has the 425 oz-in motors, KL4030 Drivers and the 36V power supply. Currently the electronics have been wired up and I was able to bench test them with a good result.....The motors actually moved when I commanded them from my keyboard via Mach3...YIPPPEEE!!
After getting the electronics to work I have began designing/assembling an x-axis gantry (the thing that supports the z-axis and the tracks for the y-axis). My machine will be 4'x4' when complete with a chain drive on the x and y axis and a ball screw for the z axis......
Anyways, As my gantry is nearing completion, I can't help but notice that it is getting a little heavy, which then made me think that a single 425 Oz-in motor may not have enough guts to move this beast at a resonable speed. (This assumption is not founded in zaney math and physics....It is more of a gut feeling so I may be wrong). After snooping around on the Keling website, I noticed that a NEMA 23 motor can be had that produces 570 Oz-in and is paired with a KL6852 driver.....looking even deeper I found some really powerful NEMA 34 motors and driver combos. So finally here is my question???
If determined necessary, Is is possible (or even reasonable) to run two KL4030 drivers with 425 Oz-in motors(y & Z axis) and one KL5852 driver and 570 oz-in motor or an even bigger NEMA 34 stepper motor+driver package by itself on the x-axis? If needed, I am not worried about providing an additional power supply for the odd motor.
I also noticed the my current motors are called Bipolar while the 570 Oz-in motors do not appear to have that distinction. Are there any negative effects when mixing and matching Bipolar and Unipolar motors on one machine? I am also assuming that the wiring change would still be simple. I would just follow the Keling provided wiring diagram for the odd motor except it might terminate at its own power supply and the existing x-axis terminations on the breakout board would be replaced one for one with similar wires from the new driver.
Thanks for helping a newbie!
It is not uncommon to have different size motors, and different drivers, on different axes.