| | |
correction...steppers are 1.0AOriginally Posted by bjesson
As I was searching for driver solutions I found this miniature drivers that mounts directy on the motor. They are made by UIRobot and can be purchased from here :
UIM 24002 stepper motor driver
They seem expensive at $60 each and I was wondering about their real benefit of being small since most CNC's out there are big enought to hide regular drivers.
Wow, those are nice little drivers! They are expensive because of the micro-electronics...smaller is always more expensive in electronics, and they use an aluminum casing which will also act as a heatsink for the stepper. All-in-all very good for tight spaces but not necessary for this version of CNC router. This isn't a "size matters" design. but very cool if you have $180 to invest. I am tempted to try them out. Good find!
billj
I would add "how do you attach the motor wiring?" Is it internal? If so, are you willing to cut off your wiring to a small nub?
Looks like a solution looking for a problem. Still got about the same wiring going to the break-out board so what are you saving?
From the pic on the website it looks like screw terminals to attach the motor wires and screw terminals to attach the extension, you would need at minimum about 3 to 5 inches of motor wire. there is no wiring benefit and the only added advantage would be the smaller footprint and the heatsink. There is no advantage to putting chrome plated rims on a car but it is cool...similar situation here
billj
they do have one downside and im sure they have another model to cover this issue but this model is a 2.0A max. And one other drawback I just noticed is you would actually be adding more wires into the system at the motor locations because DC is required. So maybe a slight wiring disadvantage as you would have to deal with the extra bulk of cables. The last downside I can think of is the fact your drivers are now in the danger zone for Y and Z axis'. A cool idea but definately not the route I would take for this design of CNC router.
billj
Another advantadge of this is that you don't need shielded wires for big currents since it require 5V low current signals. Also another advantage is with high inductance motors that can add noise in cables? Just a tought.
Alright, here is what I decided.
I'm going to try the SOC Robotics Drivers. I won an e-bay auction for a 4 axis board for about $80.
SOC Robotics MK4 MM160 Stepper Motor Controller
I'm going to try these steppers.
Lin Engineering - Step Motor Specialists
A bit light weight, but they were cheap. Lin Engineering 5718M-05E-05. They are listed as 8 wire, so I should be able to hook them up bipolar serial or parallel as well as unipolar. For only $41 USD, I'll at least get a working system. If I don't like them, not hard to change.
Now I need a couple of power supplies. I would like a 32 volt for the steppers and a 9 volt for the driver board. I'm going to check my supply of wall warts for the 9 volt. I can use 24 volts for the steppers and may do that depending on price. I need to stick below 36 volts at any rate.
Very interesting... I had not seen that driver/breakout board combination before.
Do they come with heat sinks or do you have to make or locate them for the boards?
Heat sink not included. The vendor said that a fan is required. I think they have a heat sink available but I will likely make a heat sink that spans all three or 4 channels out of an aluminum plate or angle. I bought the 4 channel as it was not much more expensive and if I blow a channel, I have a spare. I would also like to make a lathing 4th axis in the future for spindle work.
I got a nice e-mail from them with some answers to some of my questions. I have a second e-mail into them to explain what connectors I need to procure.
Can you post a link to the auction or to a similar one?
How about just their storefront.
modularcnc items - Get great deals on Bipolar Controllers, Unipolar Controllers items on eBay Stores!
Posting Permissions
| | |
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
