Two stepper on one drive

[TigerPilot]

Originally Posted by pminmo Yoram, Look at the 3 axis system diagram on my website: http://pminmo.com/ Really boils down to what software you are going to run. Also on my website here: http://pminmo.com/pport/pport.htm You can see how EMC runs six motors on one parallel port. Phil

Phil, I've decided to start a new thread since the other one has already more then 62 pages. :-)

I want to asure you that I've been looking at your web page a lot. :-) You can see it by the questions I've asked about the chip selection.

I'm going to make a foam cutting cnc and the software for it is runnig four axis. If I use the same machine to route I'll need the x and the z axis motors to be run together. If I'll use Mach2, which I probabely will do, then I have to connect the motors together. On an other thread I saw some one say that he has two motors connected to one driver and with the power off when he turns one motor the other one follows. Way cool. :-) The motors I hope to have run on 1.5A. So my question is how do I connect two of your boards to one output? Just run a Y wire from the breakout to the drivers?

I'm talking of course about the a3977sed boards

Yoram

[solarchimesam]

I saw your post here so I had to reply.

That was my controller I had 2 motors on 1 driver...Oh and by the way I ran this with windows 98 and Linux EMC with no problems. The way I did it was set up EMC on Linux first. The directions I wanted for X,Y and Z then rebooted into windows and setup Kcam and flipped the printer ports so they went the same way I had them going in Linux.

Send me a message if you feel like it...I am no pro but I do have
some ideas I like.
Hope I helped in some way

[TigerPilot]

What you did is you connected the two motors in parallel to the driver. If I will do that with two 1.5A motors connected to Phils board which is rated for 2.5A I'll go over its rateing. It may work if I add extra cooling to the chip but I'm not sure if you can do it. I don't mind having 5 drivers for 5 motors if I know how to connect them.

Yoram

[pminmo]

Yoram,
I wouldn't advise one 3977 output to two motors. A biploar driver chip supplies the motor voltage unlike a uniploar which most of the time just switchs the ground side. You really ought to use on driver per motor. You can parallel the inputs. i.e. one step signal from the pc wired to two step inputs on two driver boards.

Phil

[TigerPilot]

Thanks, Phil, that's what I wanted to know, if I can double up on the breakout board's output.

Yoram