Xylotex or stepperworld (or something else)?

[jdbaker]

Hello,

We recently got some of the axis's finished on our final machine, and have realized that our motors and drive board are underpowered (we originally had the hobbycnc.com board with their 200 oz/in motors).

We just purchased a Nema 34 1200 oz/in motor from homeshopcnc.com to drive the x axis, and plan to change the table to use 2 of the 200 oz/in hobbycnc.com motors to drive the y axis (one motor per side) and then the other 200 oz/in hobbycnc.com motor for the z axis (it is plenty by itself for that small axis) but will need to upgrade the driver board.

We are looking at the FET-4 from stepperworld, but we are not sure if will power the larger motor that we have on the way (the 1200 oz/in) and from what I've read on these forums, they don't seem to be the best driver.

I have also looks at the Xylotex board, but from what I've read on these forums, I'm not sure it would be powerful enough either. We are trying to keep the cost down on this, and I have looked at other driver boards that look great, but are very spendy compared to these other 2 boards.

Can anyone suggest what board I should get (or is there one that is even better than the ones I've mentioned)? I would love to make a purchase by tomorrow so that the board can get here before christmas so we can work on the machine over the christmas break.

[ger21]

I don't think the Stepperworld board will perform as well as the HobbyCNC. The HobbyCNC and the Xylotex are somewhat comparable, although the HobbyCNC can use higher voltages and probably offers a little better performance. Both the HobbyCNC and Xylotex probably work best with motors in the 300oz or less range.

What voltage are you running the HobbyCNC at? Is it the Chopper board, or the older style they used to sell?

The only realistic option for that 1200 oz motor would be a Gecko 201 or 202.

[buscht]

Gerry is right. I have the Xylotex and it is too small for a 1200 oz-in motor.

[jdbaker]

Thanks for the tips guys, we did end up ordering a gecko board (the g201) which we'll use to power the 1200 oz/in motor and then keep the other 3 200 oz/in motors powered by the hobby cnc board (we have 2 of them powering the y axis and one powering the z axis).

I also heard back from stepperworld concerning their FET-3 and FET-4 boards and he said that since the boards are unipolar, and our motor is bipolar, the motor wouldn't have worked at all with their boards. He also suggests the largest motor with his board be 400 oz/in.

I think the gecko drive will be great and am glad I asked before I made a costly mistake by getting the wrong board.