Recently acuired components, any advice?

[jeffs555]

The nameplate on the motors says they are bipolar, so the extra wire is probably just a ground wire connected to the case of the motor. You most likely cannot run these motors with the hobbycnc drives which are unipolar only.

[candle]

i agree with above
those are bipolar, and additional wire is for shielding purposes
as for if j2 should or should not be connected directly to parallel port i should say no - it shouldn't
usually you have main board and stepper drivers boards, and my interface should be connected between stepper driver (your microstepping device) and main board - you don't need get optoisolated one, plain buffers will do - noise won't come in as its taken care of by diffrential signaling
if picstep is out of question try standard approach - L297/L298 pair
it should fit in very tight budget - aprox $20 if you paid what i would in poland for those components
it is sold for $35 as a kit, so if you are capable of doing your own pcb it shouldn't be a problem

[candle]

one last thing
i just read through your driver manual, and saw there is an optoisolator instead of diffrential drive - not bad thing i guess and schematics i've proven will still be valid
but - you may tide up all + (step dir, etc) to 5V and connect "-" pins as it would be plain driver

[Halfdone]

Originally Posted by candle one last thing i just read through your driver manual, and saw there is an optoisolator instead of diffrential drive - not bad thing i guess and schematics i've proven will still be valid but - you may tide up all + (step dir, etc) to 5V and connect "-" pins as it would be plain driver

Candle I am not sure that I understand these instructions.

Well per advise that I received here I decided to eventually use my 5630 drivers and have purchased another Pacifis S. 5630 Stepper Driver today on Ebay (Hope it works) and pretty much blew my cheaper than cheap budget. All of the parts I have gathered thus far were all free. At least now I have a matched set for X and Y axis. Z will have to be something else for now.

I was able to sample five of the LMD18245 from National Semiconductor, which are the expensive part of the Picstep Driver boards so I guess I will build them for my other axis's Z and beyond.

So now I need to decide on a good controller that will hopefully drive the Picstep and the 5630's, any ideas? By the way, incase nobody noticed these motors that I have are all Bipolar Hybrids so as I understand it they can be very good motors!

Chuck, thanks for the info, I work with elecro-mechanical things by proffession so I hope I can manage this build. I think that you make a good point that there are some good things out there to use to keep costs down. I do have some Linear bearings and .5" dia. shafts about 20" long that I think will be great for the Z axis, and some long approx. 4' solid 1.5" round bar that I think will work for the X and Y. For the X and Y I will have to create some sort of linear bearing assembly to run on these shafts. For the bulk of the body I will start with Plywood (I allready have a bunch in the garage), but hope to use the CNC to eventually upgrade itself to something more robust it the future possibly Alum. or even steal (Has anybody made there own Laser cutter or waterjet cutter yet?).

Keep the Ideas coming I apreciate all of it, and I hope to start a new thread with build pictures and ideas some day soon.

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by chuckknigh This is a picture from this site (don't remember the name...sorry!) that shows the sliding platform and stationary base. This one slides on what appear to be plastic bushings...simpler yet. It looks to be a good design, overall. -- Chuck Knight

That is a picture of the y-axis back plate in my new Mini-Routers!
It has 3/8 Thomson linear rails and bronze bushing slides! The plastic is the Delrin nut for the acme screw!

http://widgitmaster.com/

Eric

[Halfdone]

Originally Posted by widgitmaster That is a picture of the y-axis back plate in my new Mini-Routers! It has 3/8 Thomson linear rails and bronze bushing slides! The plastic is the Delrin nut for the acme screw! http://widgitmaster.com/ Eric

That looks very precise, Nice work, I only hope to have something like this eventually, but alas, I must build it myself (Mostly for self gratification).

Mark

[candle]

would you like another schematics of what you have and what you need connected to give basic setup?
i'm not entairlny sure about my english and if i be able to put what i mean in words

[Halfdone]

Yes please I understand you mostly but I just dont understand the hookup of the curcuit that you sent me.

Thank you,
Mark