Need suggetions replacing stepper motor driver.

[Gothover]

I could use some suggestions. I had a stepper motor driver fail on my cnc router, when I removed the bad controller I found it is a

Wantai PC Stepper Driver with 4.2A DQ542MA.

Is this a good driver? It didnt last very long. 5 months.

Should I replace the drivers with better quality ones? suggestions please.

I found a similar replacement called a power step PSD5042-2P

Sugestions please, this machine has been completely unreliable, and I have tried everything except replacing the entire machine to get it to cut consistently.

Dave

[dertsap]

you can get those 4.2 amp drivers on ebay for around $40 if you shop around , overall they're all the same crap with the same chinese support (non-existent) , I've been running those drives on my mill and am fairly content with the performance and reliability , maybe yours was a dud ,
if you want better quality drivers with better support then I'd suggest gecko drives , I've got gecko 201 drives on my router and they have been excellent , the only reason i bought the 4.2 amp drives was the fact that i could buy three for the price of one of the gecko's

[Gothover]

I dont mind spending some money if that is what is takes to get me up and running.

Will these Gecko'work in place of my current drives - Gecko G-201X

I like the fact that these have stand by feature.

[dertsap]

the 201 drivers should do fine , plus it will leave you plenty of room for for future mods f you so choose . they'll run at high voltages and amps than the original 4.2 amp driver , so you can bump up your motor power supply and or motors to something larger .
for the extra $20 the 203v would be the best bet , but the 201 drivers are pretty tough anyhow , they didn't have the 203 drives when I bought so I went with the 201 .
the 203 is basically their indestructible driver , and even if you were to blow it then they are a great company to deal with , so you'll get their support

[Gothover]

Thanks, I think I will upgrade to the Gecko's, having a driver fail sucks.

I also wanted to do some upgrades to this machinse as it is incapable of cutting 2 parts identical. I dont know what is causing the issue, but I have tightened, tensioned lubed, tweaked an twisted, and this machine always seems to have high error rates.

Before this machine I had a cheap slow old school debecee running dos that never had a problem, was just incredibly slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Dave

[Gothover]

looks like I misdiagnosed the problem, I swapped the controllers with the z axis controller and the y axis operates.

Now I suspect the breakout boad is the source of the problem, so I swapped y axis input 5 to 9, and changed the input in Mach 3 to use pin 9. Now all axis move, however the Y axis moves 1/4 the speed it normally does

Dave

[dertsap]

might be the cable between your pc and breakout board is shot

[Gothover]

I suspect that could be the problem as well, not really sure.

When I switched inputs from 5 to 9 it ran slowly ti i reset the dip switches, now seems to operate fine. I will need to run a test piece to see if it cuts square.

Problem now, is not sure what I need to replace, and if I do replace a part that isn't identical, not sure how to recalibrate.

As I am sure you can tell, I purchased a turn key machine and have alot to learn.

Thanks for the help

[dertsap]

it would be odd for the breakout board to crap out , parallel port cables are cheap to replace so I'd start there , i had a similar problem when i was trying to set up one of my machines and the port cable was the root of the problem .
also you should check the drivers to make sure that they are set properly for the motor amperage , the dip setting will be shown on the top of the driver , if the amperage isn't set proper for the motors then this could result in lost steps and give you the inconsistency that you've been experiencing

[Gothover]

I will see about getting a new cable tomorrow, I did check the settings, and they are all the same 3.5 amps, I asked the builder for a parts list.. no go there, he said all of the parts are available on ebay.

Problem is I dont evern know how to identify the stepper motors, no labels.

I ordered a new 5" linear slide for the Z axis today, because the one that comes on this machine has too much play, I have tightened it and it's far better, but nothing like a good linear slide. The rest of the machine seems solid, other than I may have to replace all of the electronics to get it to stop missing steps.

[uirobot]

You could contact us at tiger@uirobot.com for UIROBOT Miniature Stepper Driver.
Tiger Huang tiger@uirobot.com are glad to serve you with quality stepper driver.

I will see about getting a new cable tomorrow, I did check the settings, and they are all the same 3.5 amps, I asked the builder for a parts list.. no go there, he said all of the parts are available on ebay.

Problem is I dont evern know how to identify the stepper motors, no labels.

I ordered a new 5" linear slide for the Z axis today, because the one that comes on this machine has too much play, I have tightened it and it's far better, but nothing like a good linear slide. The rest of the machine seems solid, other than I may have to replace all of the electronics to get it to stop missing steps.