stepper motor help

[mzungu]

I've started my first cnc table by obtaining an old Hermes engraver and taking the xyz hardware and tacking on my controls. I've purchased a probotix breakout board (pbx-rf) and a driver (probostep) and connected them to one of my stepper motors, but nothing (good) happens. I initially set the driver to output 3A along with a 3A fuse inline, but I kept blowing fuses and the stepper motor would get very warm. I've double and triple checked my wiring (6-wire stepper, unipolar, 2-phase), but everything seams to be wired properly. I'm using Mach3 software and have set everything up software-wise. Can anyone offer suggestions or experience as to why the steppers are heating up? At this point, I welcome anything.

Thanks!

[ger21]

If you put the fuse inline between the drive and stepper, there's a good chance you killed the drive. Never put a fuse there, and never disconnect a motor under power, or you'll kill the drive instantly.

If the drive is working correctly, the motors should lock up when power is aplied to the drive. If they don't, then either the drives are miswired, or dead. If they do lock up, then you can move on to Mach3.

[mzungu]

It turns out that I had a bad driver board. After hours of checking the wiring, trying different configurations in Mach3, blowing fuses (which are located between the power supply and drive), I finally called Len at Probotix and through some troubleshooting, determined the drive was bad.

Thank you for your reply.

Jonathan