Wiring Woes.....

[Normsthename]

Hi
I have recently finished building my Steel Router with a working range of 920mm x 600mm x 140mm and it worked fine except that the motors continually lost steps while cutting even at quite slow speeds.
The general opinion on this forum was that the 1 nm Motors that I fitted were not powerful enough for my size of machine.
So I have now bought some new 4.5nm motors and electronics to 'beef' up the machine.
The Guy that supplied my original electrics wanted £600 + all my old electronics and wiring returning to upgrade to a more powerful setup.
So I decided to source the parts myself.
Here is the list of the new parts that I have bought from Motion Control :-

2 x 8 wire 4.5 nm Stepper Motors for the X & Y Axis
1 x 6 wire 4.5 nm Stepper motor for the Z Axis
3 x MDS542 4.2amp Driver
2 x 42vDC 280w Power Supplies (The guy recommended that I bought two to be on the safe side, and to 'gang' the outputs together)
1 x Breakout Board
1 x 4 Relay board to drive my Router and Dust Extraction system.

The reason for the different motors is that they only had 2 in stock, the guy said the 6 wire motor would be fine for the Z Axis.
This weekend I would like to get the parts up and running on the bench, and I could do with some help from the electrical Gurus that are on this site
Electrics are not my strong subject and bring me out in a cold sweat so please be gentle with me
I do have a multi-meter available if required.

Now onto the questions :-

1) The X & Y Motors have 8 wires, how do I wire these into the A+,A-, B+ B- on the driver.

2) The Z Motor only has 6 wires, one of these is just a 'bare' wire with clear insulation on it.
How do I wire these into the A+,A-, B+ B- on the driver.

3) On the PDF file attached for the driver it shows a typical wiring diagram and it shows 3 x 270 ohm resistors, are these already fitted internally, or do I need to add these?

4) In my enclosure I have only 240v AC and 42v DC available, what is the best method for me to power a 12v cooling fan?

5) I have my original box and working Mach2 file to get all the pin numbers for the limit switches etc. What pins on the parallel port would I use to switch the relay card on & off?

6) What pins do I use on the Breakout Board for connecting the Driver PUL+, PUL-,DIR+, DIR-, ENA+, ENA-

Thanks in advance, it is very much appreciated.

Andy

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Hi Andy,

I am by no means an electronics gurus ( could not be further from the true) but I have experience with the MSD556 drives. You may like to read through this thread and see wiring diagram. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17857

1 / you should have some info with the stepper explaining which wire is for which phase; if you don’t have the info you need to get it. If this machine is for wood then I recommend you wire bipolar parallel.

2 / Same again you need wire colour code information before you can wire it to the drive.

3/ Yes they are fitted internally and the drive is also optically isolated.

4/ I would just use a 12v adaptor but others may give you better advice.

5/ Not sure would need to find information.

6/ See wiring diagram in suggested thread.

Hope this helps,

John

[Oldmanandhistoy]

I just checked the wiring diagram and it is in DXF format if this is a problem give me a shout. Wiring diagram is in the last post (ignore the start if you can as it is a little embracing).

John

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Just read your post again; I presume you checked the printer port when investigating your lost steps?

The reason I ask is I had a problem with loosing steps and after exhaustive investigation it turned out to be my printer port; changed PC and the problem went away.

Btw they are some beefy stepper you got there.

John

[Normsthename]

1 / you should have some info with the stepper explaining which wire is for which phase; if you don’t have the info you need to get it. If this machine is for wood then I recommend you wire bipolar parallel. 2 / Same again you need wire colour code information before you can wire it to the drive.

Thanks John for answering so quickly
I did not get any info with the stepper motors which is why I attached a picture showing the label......
I thought I read somewhere that you could determine which wire was which with a Multi-meter??

just checked the wiring diagram and it is in DXF format if this is a problem give me a shout. Wiring diagram is in the last post (ignore the start if you can as it is a little embracing).

I found your dxf diagram, and it is very helpful, I just need some help sorting out the stepper wiring and I will be ready for the smoke test!

Andy

[Oldmanandhistoy]

If you bought the steppers from Motion Control they will have the wiring information.

John

[Normsthename]

he reason I ask is I had a problem with loosing steps and after exhaustive investigation it turned out to be my printer port; changed PC and the problem went away.

I am pretty sure that the stepper motors were not man enough for my steel router, the gantry is made from 30mm box section, and it must weigh quite a bit!

Btw they are some beefy stepper you got there.

I hope so!
I built the machine for my business, and once it is reliable it will be running most days, so I made sure the motors were upto the job!

Andy

[Normsthename]

If you bought the steppers from Motion Control they will have the wiring information.

I had a look on their Website and could only find the Drawings and torque curves
I will get in touch with them on Monday to see if they have any more info available.

Andy

[Oldmanandhistoy]

I had the same situation when I bought some of their steppers; Gary (mcpltd on cnczone) very quickly sorted them out for me via email.


John

[Normsthename]

Hi John
Did a bit of searching on the 'Net' and came up with these drawings, are they any use?
If only electrics was as easy as doing a search on the net

Andy

[Oldmanandhistoy]

The PDF looks to me to be the one you need for the 8 wire steppers; just double check the ref number as similar stepper don’t always have the same colour code.

Where did you get the attached pic of the 6 wire?

John

[Normsthename]

Where did you get the attached pic of the 6 wire?

I did a search for the part number on the Stepper motor and I found them on this Website
http://www.silmanet.com/dk/catalogue...roduct_id=4860

One more question (Honest!), what should I set the Rev/unit setting on the driver to, it starts at 400 and goes upto 25000!
On my current 1nm motor I use a setting of 80 in mach2 with a 5mm screw equals 400 per rev.....

Also found another drawing that looks definitely like the right part.....

Andy