4.5A THB6064AH Single Axis Stepper Motor Driver Review

[tinky1233]

Hi to all my name is Tony, I am new to the forum, love you guys there is ton of useful information here. I am moderately experienced DIY CNC user, I use mostly small CNC mills to produce prototype PCB-s and electronic's housings, front plates...

Recently my Dremmel broke down and I decided to upgrade to silent Chinese 400w 48V spindle. It is a beautiful and useful tool much better than my old dremel 300 but with mount it was to heavy for my Z axis to properly work. I have belt direct drive on Z axis with nema 23 2.5A stepper motor. Stepper driver I used with my machine was this:
http://s23.postimg.org/wzr02yum3/driver.png
http://s30.postimg.org/nv5ki1kr5/WP_20141116_003.jpg
TA8435H driver just didn't have enough power to lift new spindle, so I decided to order new driver, and this time I wanted each axis driver to be separated. To save the cost I bought 2 of the cheap chinese TB6560 for X and Y axis (about $8 each -Ebay) and the 4.5A THB6064AH for the Z axis ($27 -ebay)

TB6560: http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_217142_1.jpg
THB6064AH:
http://s28.postimg.org/bm46zq9d9/File002.jpg
http://s30.postimg.org/c3hp78q4x/WP_20141116_001.jpg
http://s30.postimg.org/pyfzppkk1/WP_20141116_002.jpg

The THB6064AH is the first Chinese driver that I can speak positively about the build quality, and performance. It is pretty clean and simple design (mostly because the chip does all the hard work and not peripheral components). The heatsink is nice and big, chip is well supported with 2 screws, the board is also screwed with 4 screws with spacers and everything is solid, and there is actualy a thermal paste on the chip! I could not take heatsink apart to take look at the other side of pcb because of special triangle shaped screws which is my only bad thing I can say about this board. From the side i can see 2 drivers that are well placed on heatsink with some kind of thermal sponge thing see the picture:
http://s28.postimg.org/pbyq8iwh9/File003.jpg
The connection to the board is preety simple and all conections are on removable screw terminals. All inputs are opto-insulated and common +5V. The marking on the top of PCB provide information for setting the microstep, decay and drive current which is set by a trimmer. The trimmer is much better and precise method of setting current than switches IMHO. The board came with no manual and as far as I know it is non existent as I was unable to find it anywhere. The seller of the item doesn't have one either. The reason I find manual important is that there is one DIP switch on the board that is not marked in english and I don't know what it does? I was unable to trace PCB signal to the chip because it is on bottom layer that i cannot access? see the picture:
http://s28.postimg.org/fh7l2asj1/File004_2.jpg
I connected the driver on 24V supply and breakout board, set 1/32 microstep and about 45% on current pot and Z axis moved like never before. The action is silky smooth and holding power is excellent. there is not a single sound of motor noise when motor is holding (decay 60%). The motors are almost cold and driver is mild warm to the touch during the operation. Its the best driver I had so far. Then I connected other 2 TB6560 chinese drivers and I soon realized I will have to order 2 more of THB6064AH's. The TB6560's are set on full power with 1/16 microstep, 50% decay, 50% hold current. If I set anything lower then max current I can move machine by hand during hold in operation, only on max current they hold somewhat. I don't know what to do? The motors get quite hot and while moving they sound like floppy drive starting (not smooth at all, they sound like full step on 1/16 microstep). Also during hold there are all king of noises coming from motors depending on where motor stops but mostly harsh hissing sounds.I have only option to set 20% and 50% holding current. If I am unable to tweak these 2 drivers I'm afraid I will have to order 2 more 6064's.




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[BronzeAgeMan]

Hi Tony,

Great review. I'm just wondering how these are working out. Any problems with the 6064 based drives?

Allan

[SteveWill]

I got 3 of these driver about a year ago, and have done all the thing a Newbee does like connecting with power turn on and not had any problems. I am running 40V and 3 amp.

[BronzeAgeMan]

That's great!

Do you know which version of the board you got? There are a few but does it look like this one with resistors each side of the big THB6064AH chip?

There are pictures and discussion a bit in this thread:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/steppe...5a-driver.html

[SteveWill]

I am in the USA and order my here
6064: 4AMP Stepper Motor Driver Kit. massmind

[BronzeAgeMan]

OH! But that is not a chinese design/built board discussed, but Luc's work, with much better components.

I may get this one too.

[tinky1233]

After a month of light usage, I can say I am really happy with the 6064 driver, and I have ordered 2 more for x and y axis. TB6560 drivers are so much inferior and built like Chinese crap compared to THB6064AH. I will do some more hard work once new drivers arrive, and report how it goes.

[BronzeAgeMan]

Thanks! Let us know. I'm ordering 3 myself.

[lucas]

OH! But that is not a chinese design/built board discussed, but Luc's work, with much better components.

I may get this one too.

Think you made the wrong decision by buying the chinese, they do have inferior components as you said: the electrolytic capacitors will heat up and die soon, open sided connectors, etc..
I think there's something wrong with the motor supply configuration: the diode will prevent the motor back EMF to be dumped in the power supply.
Then there's the undocumented switch, I have a gutt feeling that it might be important by looking at the photo's.
Just a guess but if in the wrong position: Magic smoke.

[BronzeAgeMan]

Your misunderstanding I think. I and SteveWill are favoring the Massmind one:
6064: 4AMP Stepper Motor Driver Kit. massmind

I haven't gotten an order together yet but I'm agreeing with you, though Tinky seems happy with whatever he's got.

Think you made the wrong decision by buying the chinese,....

[tinky1233]

I have zero problems so far, everything is running smooth, all components are cool, so no need for fan, to my surprise even motors are not getting hot, and they hold more than 6560 at full power (which made motors very noisy and hot). I haven't touched the mistery switch yet, I'm afraid

[tinky1233]

Here is video of the all 3 THB6064's in action

[lucas]

Your misunderstanding I think. I and SteveWill are favoring the Massmind one:
6064: 4AMP Stepper Motor Driver Kit. massmind

Agree, I misunderstood because you replied this:

Thanks! Let us know. I'm ordering 3 myself.

to tinky1233 (I'm probably not the only one who did).

I have zero problems so far, everything is running smooth, all components are cool, so no need for fan, to my surprise even motors are not getting hot, and they hold more than 6560 at full power (which made motors very noisy and hot). I haven't touched the mistery switch yet, I'm afraid

You are using the drive at 24V and 2.5A if I read correct?
This is only 1/3th of the chip's capabilities and heat decrease lifetime exponentially , wonder what would happen at 100%.
Electrolytic capacitors are an example of this, they heat up internally and their lifetime is reduced by half for each 10°C temperature increase, yep 50% reduction.
Cooling might help a little but using the correct type is much better, quality low-esr capacitors are expensive.

Quote from:
Electrolytic Capacitor Lifetime Estimation | PowerGuru - Power Electronics Information Portal

Summary
Aluminum electrolytic capacitors often determine the lifetime of electronic devices. A thorough knowledge of some of the key parameters and aging concepts of these components are necessary to ensure the reliable design of electronic devices with a predictable lifetime.

There are several options for this:
1 use the cheapest one and don't bother about lifetime.
2 calculate and choose a type that will last just long enough to cover the warranty period.
3 go for quality and use one of the best available.

1 is probably what you have, 2 is what commercial companies do (sounds familiar, doesn't it) and 3 is what hobbiests do to avoid problems and hassle.


Did you ask the supplier about the mistery switch? Any reply?

[tinky1233]

I agree what you said about the quality 100%.
But,
For the 26$ assembled and delivered to my house I don't care if they last a year, I will replace the whole thing. Also this is the first Chinese driver that works as intended, with no quirks, and I have tried many including 4 axis and 3 axis systems, I even had one from Mexico (xilotex clone), and none work great. I use my machine for hobby purposes, and for some small PCB prototyping work. If I had a business and I depended on machine to work and make me money I would buy gecko driver in instant and not even hassle with this inferior devices. But for hobby I can't afford that much and I am always looking for best buy stuff and I was really happy that I found this driver and wanted to share my find with you guys. I appreciate this forum, I had found many solutions here and great reviews, and I wanted to contribute by testing this driver and provide you with my findings.

I have updated my power supply by adding meanwell 12v 30A in series to existing 24v one. I had to upgrade because new spindle was slow on 24V. So I cranked the pots on both PSU's to max and I get about 40V with 15A capability.

Drivers only warm after few hours of air cutting (testing dummy gcode) motors warm not hot, no missed steps. No issues so far, apart from complete lack of documentation.

[BronzeAgeMan]

Agree, I misunderstood because you replied this:

to tinky1233 (I'm probably not the only one who did).

Apologises, I got confused thinking SteveWill bought the Chinese creation,then not...

Quote from:
Electrolytic Capacitor Lifetime Estimation | PowerGuru - Power Electronics Information Portal

That article was really informative, especially the Lifetime Model and calculations. Thanks.

[tinky1233]

Also what I noticed on these Chinese drivers is poor heat management that also causes failures as well as cheap capacitors. They often put cheap small heatsinks and rely on fan cooling which causes more problems than solves. Fan is usually powered by same regulator used for logic and causes overheats , termal paste is not yet invented in those factories also.
This 6064 looks like it's build by different crew. Heat sink is large and massive, components are tightly screwed and there is termal paste. PCB is quality FR4 material with good tolerances and quality control. Soldering is clean and nice, properly heated with no bad joints. Electronic capacitors are not the best, but they should work fine if you don't push the board 100% Only downside is lack of documentation, and triangle screws that prevent easy modification and upgrade, if you want to put better components...

[jtrantow]

Did you have any logic level problems?

I am setting up an eBay/chinese JP-6445A and I am having some problems. When I connect to a chinese parallel breakout or directly to the parallel port I am only seeing 3.3-3.4V as a logic high. If I let the JP-6445A enable(EN) float, it goes to 4.12V, direction(DR) floats to 4.42V. If I step with the enable floating at 4.12V the motor will step correctly, and I can change the direction by floating/grounding the direction pin. This is consistent with a complaint I saw in one of these threads where the motor would only turn in one direction.

3.3V is a valid logic high for TTL. It looks to me like this JP-6445A needs a little more than that for the enable and direction pins.
The TB6564AH data sheet list VinH as a minimum 2.0V, so this is probably in the board design.

[jtrantow]

I changed the resistors between the PU, ER, and EN pins and the optocouplers. Two of these surface mount Rs measured 267 ohms and one measured 326 ohms. I believe these resistor values allow too much current in the VinH conditions (my parallel port only has 3.3V high). (5V - optodrop(.5?) - 3.3) = 1.2V which means 4.5mA going through optodiode which must be enough to turn in on.

I changed these three resistors to 1K and everything seems to work. Low input spec is 5mA, I would go a little smaller on the resistors if I did it again. (5V - VinLmax - optodiode drop)/5mA > R, maybe 700 ohms.

If you have one of these cheap chinese boards and it only runs in one direction or doesn't work with the enable, you can give this a try. If the driver works when the input is floating and grounded but not when connected to the cnc, this may be your problem.

Notice massmind design uses a 10k pullup in conjunction with the TB6564AH internal pulldown so it won't have this problem. This is an easy fix if you don't mind working with the three surface mount resistors, but I wish I had been aware of the massmind kit. It would have been quicker to build up the kit than debug and repair this board.

In the attached photo, the tip of the multimeter is pointing to the three surface mount resistors on the bottom side of the board that should be replaced.

[James Newton]

Notice massmind design uses a 10k pullup in conjunction with the TB6564AH internal pulldown so it won't have this problem. This is an easy fix if you don't mind working with the three surface mount resistors, but I wish I had been aware of the massmind kit. It would have been quicker to build up the kit than debug and repair this board.

,o)

Can I quote you on the site? It's worth a $10 discount if you agree. If you ever decide to order one of the kits, just send me a message HERE on CNCZone reminding me that I offered it.

[jtrantow]

,o)

Can I quote you on the site? It's worth a $10 discount if you agree. If you ever decide to order one of the kits, just send me a message HERE on CNCZone reminding me that I offered it.

Sure, it will be a few weeks before I know whether I need the extra drive current from TB6564AH drivers.