Stepper Question

[ignatz]

Hi All,

This is my first post so I hope I've submitted to the right forum. I have a question about some stepper motors. I bought three Astrosyn Minebea 23LM-C373-01 6 wire stepper motors. The statistics are 12 v/phase, 0.44 A/ phase 1.8 Degrees/step. I am looking for a driver board that will work well with these steppers. I contacted Xylotex (sp?) regarding their 4-axis Unipolar board and was told that I would get poor performance as far as top speed and torque are concerned due to a high impedance (The motors are rated at 27 OHM). The response confused me... does that mean these are just poor motors for CNC use? Should I use a Bipolar driver instead? Any and all help is much appreciated.

[H500]

Unfortunately, the motors are no good. The main problem is the high voltage required to make them perform. Bipolar won't make a difference . You need a driver that can run from as high of voltage as possible (expensive). Your best bet is to get different motors.

[2muchstuff]

Look for a motor that has a low voltage rating and a high amp rating, more amps equals more torque. You generally supply the motor with a voltage that will be 10 to 25 times the name plate rating on the motor, this will give you your speed and the amps will do the work for you. That is why you see drives with high voltage ratings.

[jerber]

I use the picstep driver with 24V 500mA steppers. It's great for the small mill i'm building, but it ain't fast. I also use 30V supply for now.

by the way you can find more about picstep at http://www.fromorbit.com

[bunalmis]

Jerber

What is the range of IPM If we use 24V 500mA step motor for small cnc?

[jerber]

Using a M10 metric lead screw and 1/8 microstepping, I get around 340 mm/min as max speed. I only played around with the Mach2 demo though. But I don't think other software will make much difference.