1 Driver 2 Stepper Motors, is it possible will it work?

[guy2b1]

Ok, will ask my neighbor electrician if he has an ohm meter so we can measure all the stepper motors. Thank you very much, once I get all the results measured will let you know asap

[amishx64]

Ehh. Wait.

I am looking up datasheets on the net.

Motor #4: 10 Ohms, 1.2 Amps @12V Good to use.INFO LINK
Motor #5: 10 Ohms, 1.2 Amps @12V Good to use.INFO LINK
Motor #6: 2.4 Ohms on label. This sucker will eat up 5Amps @12V. Don't use.
Motor #7: Someone said a similar motor is 7 Ohms, 1.7 Amps @12V
Motor #8: 3.4 Ohm Needs 3.5 Amps @12V. Your driver can't handle this one. Don't use it.

Seems like your driver can't handle two of anything at once. Sorry. You may need to get two driver chips/ axis.

[guy2b1]

Aww, I thought its possible. I guess 1 motor 1 driver per set is the only way. If I want to rotate 2 motors to make the torque stronger, I need to wire 2 stepper drivers with 2 motors to a single Pin assignment in the Printer port so that it rotates at the same time. If I want to rotate 2 stepper motors in opposite direction, still I need to change the wire arrangements of motor to driver based from your previous suggestion that I need to follow. Is that correct?

@nophead
how did you do that by rotating 4 stepper motors to a single stepper driver, did you build your stepper driver from scratch just like your HydraRaptor? is there a DIY Stepper Driver where I can connect 2 to 4 stepper motors to a single driver like yours?

[amishx64]

Aww, I thought its possible.

Yea. Sorry. Your driver just isn't strong enough though.

I guess 1 motor 1 driver per set is the only way. If I want to rotate 2 motors to make the torque stronger, I need to wire 2 stepper drivers with 2 motors to a single Pin assignment in the Printer port so that it rotates at the same time. If I want to rotate 2 stepper motors in opposite direction, still I need to change the wire arrangements of motor to driver based from your previous suggestion that I need to follow. Is that correct?

Spot on man. That's exactly right. Glad I could teach you something.

You can buy more expensive, say 5A driver chips to control multiple motors.

Best of luck.

[guy2b1]

What if I use a branded stepper driver, will we able to use that stepper driver to run 2 or more stepper motors by modifying it? Im referring to RTA Pavia Stepper Driver SDC 05 Series with 32-65 Volts. It is paired to a stepper motor with 71 Watts, 65 Volts, 2.3 Amps, 1500 RPM.

Here is my other forum where I ask the details about this driver.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79376

Still I thank you very much for all the help and info you have given me, I learned a lot

[amishx64]

You sir, have really got me thinking.

I have good news.

There is another way of hooking up steppers to move the same that I havn't thought about. So far I have been trying to find a way to get your motors in parallel. I completely forgot about series.

In series, you simply add resistances (less current, less torque, less heat, etc) where in parallel, you reduced the resistance overall by doing R^-1 + ... (more current, more torque, more heat, etc)

This will work very well I think.

you are powering the driver at 65V. You have a max output of 3 amps at any given time for this driver of yours.

For steppers #1 and #2 (the 12 Ohms ones) you could wire the motors in series. So, 12 Ohms + 12 Ohms = 24 Ohms overall per coil.
65 = I * 24
I = 2.7 Amps. This JUST makes your 3 Amp limit. Your driver may run a tad hot like this.

Now, if you wanted to have 4 motors like this, it would be 48 Ohms, resulting in a current draw of 1.35 Amps. This sounds great right? Well putting motors in series makes them weaker as I've said before. However this will most likely suit your needs.

With two 12 Ohm motors in series, it would be the equivalent of using a 32.4 volt power supply on one of them. This is much better than your 12 Volt set up we were talking about before.

The same applies for your 4 wire motors.

Motor #4: 10 Ohms, 1.2 Amps @12V
Motor #5: 10 Ohms, 1.2 Amps @12V

You would need at least three of these types though. 65V/20Ω = 3.25A <--- A tad too much for the driver.

Overall, I would recommend you use two of the 12Ω motors (#1 and #2) in series with the 65V, 3A driver and the 10Ω motors alone (#4 and #5) on the other 12V, 1.5A driver.

I will draw up a diagram in a bit on how to connect two motors and a driver in series for your application. Have fun.

[amishx64]

I will draw up a diagram in a bit on how to connect two motors and a driver in series for your application. Have fun.

Here you go. Meant for the 12 Ohm motors on the 65V driver.

[guy2b1]

I am really grateful your helping me with this, thank you thank you very much will make some tests from what I learned from you

[guy2b1]

After thorough testing I decided to connect 2 Stepper Motors with 2 Stepper Drivers to a single pin assignment in the printer port. I have 2 pairs of these RTA Pavia Stepper Drivers with Motors with power supply of 60Volts 12Amps and plan to connect it to a single pin assignment in my printer port using Mach3 so that it will rotate in the same direction. Lets say im using Mach3, in printer port I assign it to pin 2 and 3 for step and direction then pin 18 for the ground. So I connect 2 stepper motors with 2 stepper drivers to pin 2,3 and 18 for ground. When I run it only 1 stepper motor is rotating the other one is not working. What seems to be the problem? But if I seperate it to a different printer port pin assignment both are working properly. Please help

[ger21]

There may not be enough current to supply both drives. Why not just use separate pins and slave them together in Mach3?

[guy2b1]

Thank you ger21, will try the slave setting to run 2 motors

[boldford]

I've only just found this but with identical bipolar motors I'd be inclined to connect them in series.