Stepper motor wiring

[smitty]

Yes it is me again.
I was setting up my lathe Thursday to CNC, ended up using the Mill PC to run the Lathe, and I smoked my Xylotex board! I was not thrilled at all. I thought I had the wiring the same as I have on my mill, guess not!
So, is there anyway to test the wiring or the steper motors to make sure you have the right A/A+ BB+ combinations?
I have one SLO-SYN 250 stepper and a few of the POwermax II steppers, and I really want to make sure I have all connections right before I let the smoke out again.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Smitty

[WOODKNACK]

Hi,
Get ahold of jeff hes excellent about getting that board fixed. I just did the same. It was either a bad motor or a fluke chip. I sent it back and he fixed it for nothing. You really can't beat his service. Also you want to make sure you dont unplug your motors when you have power going to them. I think that will smoke something too!
About your stepper, Take a mutimeter and check the ohms. find the wires for each coil. I think your center tap wire will have a higher ohm rating.
I have a cheap multimeter i use. It has a setting that sets a squelling noise off when you make a connection with 2 wire that are from the same coil. Thats how I find the wire for the same coil. I then check the ohm reading of the wire for that coil to determen the center tap wire. Which like I said before should be higher.
I then wire my motors to half wind mode. Which give me the fastest speed and higher torque on the top end. to get half wind mode, you take the center tap wire and and another wire from the same coil and connect that to the A's do the same for the the other coil and connect that to the B's. Tape the other wires off. Hope this helped you out!

[smitty]

The board is already on it's way back to Jeff. Hopefully it is not as bad as I think!
As per your reply, I just finished checking my mill, since it already works, and as you said, I will find a pair of wires when OHM'ing,
So I checked the Lathe, and found the same thing. Now, if I had one of those wire's crossed, meaning an A/B instead of A/A+ would that pop the controller board?
I do not want to go through this again, and want to be 100% sure I have things right.
Thanks for your help, that seems to clear things up a bit.
Smitty

[WOODKNACK]

Smitty,
Id make sure you had all your wires right. even if you had to rewire it just to make sure! Id have to say YES you would probably smoke a chip if your A's and B's are touching.

A easy way to check if the wire of A and B's are touching, Just check them with your multimeter for continuity. Take your mutimeter and put the red led on an "A" wire and the black led on a "B" wire if it buzzes then you have a wire touching. NOT GOOD.. check all your A's and B's this way..

[ger21]

On Jeff's site there is a .pdf for the powermax motors which explains the different pins (1-8) for the different wiring configurations.

Gerry

[smitty]

I think the biggest problem I have, was trying to figure which wire went where, but I think I have a grasp on it now. Using the Mulitmeter, OHM the wires, until you get a match pair, the other 2 are a gimmie. So then, how do you decide which will be the "A" set and "B" set?
Thanks for all the help
Smitty

[ger21]

read the .pdf. it explains all this for the powermax motors. It has charts that show the A's and B's. It's at the end of the 23 size motors. Wait, heres the link:
http://www.xylotex.com/PacSciDS.pdf

Page 54
Page 50 - the picture on this page for bipolar series is labeled wrong for the A and B. The A's and B's are in the same positions in the picture as the parallel wiring picture to the right.

Hope this helps,

Gerry

[WOODKNACK]

Smitty,
So then, how do you decide which will be the "A" set and "B" set?

I dont think that matters. Just put one set as the A's and the other set as the B's. Its that simple.

[smitty]

WoodKnack,
That is just what I needed to hear.
I am pretty sure I have a better grasp on things now. Just need to get the burned up board back from Jeff. Just might get another just in case!!!!!!!
Many thanks to all, this site really makes things much easier when the PROS hang out here
Smitty

[WOODKNACK]

I am glad to help. Hell someone had to tell me too. Im in favor of the K.I.S.S. method. Keep It Simple Stupid! LOL I hate Manuals!!

[Sanghera]

So you don't want A+ and A- with the same coil? They have to be different right? So when no continuity your set for the A's and then the B's are just the other four right? And it doesn't matter which wire out of the two is going into the A- or A+ slots, and long and they don't show any continuity?
Thanks. Just making sure.

[Overstreet]

To be clear, the A and underlined a is one coil same for b.

If you get the two a wires backwards it usually doesn't cause a problem and some systems have a way to compensate for this is you don't feel like rewiring.

If you mix hook the two input wires up for a coil to one B lead and one A lead, it WILL blow the board.

Cheers,
Overstreet