Step Driver Open Source. Which is the best??

[Chivo]

Thanks, for all that people that share their designs. You are heroes!!!
Now, Will be nice to share experience about the performance of this open source desings.

I'm very new in this (I love everything about CNC and do it your self stuff).
I been reading this forum for about 5 months, every night. I love it, It's my drug.

So, One day I want to build my own router, and I did it, only the mechanical stuff (I took toons of ideas from here).

Next step the electronic stuff, (step driver, Breakout Board) and
I did it. No very well.

Now my experience about the STEP DRIVERS:

First, I bought 3 good step motors (VEXTA /6 wires/ 300 oz in)
and a good step driver (Gueko g212) to have a compartion point.
I'm using Mach3/2. Good 2GHz computer, win XP Pro. 35 DC power source.

Recently I made the Pic Step driver V4 from Alan, the original design and 2 boards with some changes from Alan's design. ( Made in some PCB factory).
These 3 board have the same performace.

between Alan's driver desing and Gueko driver.

Alan's driver design
*motor does to much noise. Full/half/micro steping
*If you speed up the motor (motor tuning) the motor stars to loose steps. Only in microsteping.

Gueko Driver
*Expensive

Now, I have to test step drivers made with Allegro controllers (3977/3966 or something like that).

Sorry about my english.

[mdreitzusa]

phil has a good design for the 3977 on his site.
http://pminmo.com/
as you read on the zone there a quite a few people using this design.
most have had a lot of luck with this board.if you have questions just post and you will get lots of help.

[Chivo]

I had been reading the 3977/3979 Data sheet from Allegro Electronics.
You don't need to program nothing, for this drivers ( PIC / 51 ).

The data sheet has almost the all infomation you need to make your own driver.
You only need to plug the Direction/Step signal from the computer port.

[pminmo]

Originally Posted by Chivo I had been reading the 3977/3979 Data sheet from Allegro Electronics. You don't need to program nothing, for this drivers ( PIC / 51 ). The data sheet has almost the all infomation you need to make your own driver. You only need to plug the Direction/Step signal from the computer port.

True you don't need to program anything, true the datasheet has the information, false on your last statement. While you could hook the step/ direction signals to your computer, your results will probably not be great in a cnc enviornement. Lab for show and tell, maybe ok.

[Chivo]

My bad..
Of course isn't that easy, just hook up and play.

I will apreciate if you can give us some experiences between 3977/3979 versus
Alan Pic Step Driver v4. Only about performance.
Thanks

[pminmo]

Depends on what you mean by performance. speed, torque, accuracy......

[H500]

The biggest limitation of all the chip based design is that they cannot handle much voltage. With only a 30-45 volts, power supply, it's hard to get the full power out of your motors.

If you use 35v for all, you won't notice much difference between the g212 & PicStep. But if you use the 212 with the max allowable voltage, there will be no comparison.

The picstep (and other lmd18245 boards) is the best of the chip based boards since you can use it with 40-45v. If you're not happy with it's performance, you won't like the allegro 3977. It can only take about 32 volts.

[Chivo]

torque, accuracy. Just some comparisons

[pminmo]

H500 is correct the PicStep will out perform the 3977 if you goto the full motor supply voltage on the LMD's. Supply voltage is important.