Need Help!- Surplus Microstepping Drive

[blue_steel]

Saw these at the local surplus shop.

Anybody have any experience with these types of drives? Will they work with most any stepper (like the HP LJ-III ones I have)? And what's a good price for them?

Appreciate any info

Thanks

http://www.premotn.com/vs.html

[irving2008]

This is quality kit but designed to work with a specific range of motors although the manual gives everything you need to know to configure for another motor if you know all its characteristics. I don't know the steppers out of a LJ-III but I suspect this is massive overkill for them. It could probably be made to work through trial and error.

One note of caution: These drivers are not line isolated, they are designed for industrial use in a safety-interlock environment so be very very careful about line voltage isolation and polarity as well as switch settings or you could find yourself on the wrong end of a 150v or so.

[ger21]

It appears to supply 170V to the motors, which is probably far more than those little motors you have can handle. These drives are best suited to much larger, high inductance motors.

[blue_steel]

Originally Posted by irving2008 One note of caution: These drivers are not line isolated, they are designed for industrial use in a safety-interlock environment so be very very careful about line voltage isolation and polarity as well as switch settings or you could find yourself on the wrong end of a 150v or so.

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback.

I figured these things would probably be out of my league for the homebrew setup I've got going.

But what exactly do you mean when you say they're not "line isolated"? What's the danger when using them in a hobby type setting?

[jeffs555]

A normal supply would have a transformer to isolate it from the AC line, however this one implys that the 110 AC line is rectified and filtered to get the 170 volts DC for the motors. This would mean that there is a path from the motor wires to the hot AC line. Touching one of the motor wires could make a path from the hot AC line through you to the ground(ie it might kill you).