Help needed finding stepper driver

[David_Web]

You have way to many forums here. My head is spinning.
Hope I found the right place.

I have two Step-Syn 2.5V 2.1A and two Step-Syn 4.5V 1.8A
All of them is unipolar (6 wires)

It will only be a 3-axis but if it's a 4 axis driver it won't be a bad thing unless it costs a lot.
I want the driver to be as cheap as possible but better expensive than crap.
I have a driver that goes from 5v and up but it's whole step only and won't work for the other two.
I would like atleast half-step to get better accuracy and faster travel.

If it's simple I might even run two motors on the long axis for extra stability.

The rest of the table will be made from bits and peaces in a scrapheap sort of way. Nothing professional. Will be mostly for wood but also for metal.
As it looks now it will be able to work on a 80*80 cm area. It will be screw based on all 3 axis, that is if I can find some. It will be interesting none the less.
I will probebly document the process of building it but it might be a long jurney.

[David_Web]

I asked HobbyCNC if their driver would work with these stepper and they said it would.
http://www.hobbycnc.com/hcncpro.php

I feel the extra money put into the pro would be justefied by the idle current reduction and extra protection. Am I right on this?

Are their any other drivers that I should choose instead?

Should a ATX PSU suffice as powersource? I have pleny of those.
I have quite a few capacitors as well so it can be buffered with about 1 farad. Not that I think it would need that much tho.
I can also make something around 24V if that's better.

[pminmo]

Since they are 6 wire motors you can run them bipolar or unipolar either. Bipolar will give you more power than unipolar when all other factors are equal. Plenty of information on my website http://pminmo.com that may help you on some of your questions.

[David_Web]

Thanks.
I have yet to find a driver that is as inexpensive as the HCNC.
Do you know of any bipolar driver that would be usable but not too expensive.
I know geckos are good but they are the same price for one axis as HCNC for four.
I'm not sure running them as unipolar would cause a problem when it comes to power. I have trouble stopping them at around 10 steps/sec but higher than that the constant voltage is not enough to keep the current and it stalls. Should not be a problem with HCNC tho.

A bipolar driver would have the added benefit that I can use the driver for more motors that I have.

btw the drivers needs to be able to be delivered to EU. It's not always possible thanks to the @£!!&/?)("##@@%! RoHS!