Broken wires can fry the board?

[Jim Estes]

I ordered a Xylotex 3 axis board for my sons project, and I was reading the setup instructions and one of the things it said was that if a wire comes loose or breaks, that it can damage the board. It that common for all of these stepper drivers or just the Xylotex?

If that is true, what will happen to the board if the machine gets under a heavy load, is that going to burn up the driver?

I am planning on using some 8 wire steppers I took out of an old plotter and they are probably underpower for what he wants to do with his little machine, but I thought it was a good place to start, and if something happens to the motors I'm not out much, but I don't want anything to happne to that board, they don't give them away like the plotters.

Thanks,

Jim

[jhowelb]

In the last calender year I have seen at least 6 of my own stepper drivers take the dive because of intermittent connection.....a wire broken inside the shield and insulation.

The Gecko G203V has built in protection for this but all others will smoke.

On the plus side, amperage available is determined by the driver, draw by the motor. Just don't short circuit any thing!

IMHO it is far better to deal with KNOWN entities. Steppers aren't terribly expensive. Check these out, for example

http://www.kelinginc.net/SMotorstock.html

The biggest, most expensive at the top and cheapest at the bottom. You know what your board is rated for, just choose motors to match. Or maybe you can find out what the motors you have are rated and dope out the proper wiring sequence.

[Jim Estes]

Ok, I found out the motor wiring. I wired the power supply, adjusted the Vref, conntected to the pc and then wired the motors. After a little bit of work trying to get Mach2 to work, I jogged those little wonders back and forth. That was fun!! I had no idea I would have so much torque from those little boogers.

When I started this project I expected that any work done on it would just be a learning exerience, but I might just make this thing for myself.

Jim

[pminmo]

Ok, I found out the motor wiring. I wired the power supply, adjusted the Vref, conntected to the pc and then wired the motors. After a little bit of work trying to get Mach2 to work, I jogged those little wonders back and forth. That was fun!! I had no idea I would have so much torque from those little boogers.

When I started this project I expected that any work done on it would just be a learning exerience, but I might just make this thing for myself.

Jim

Yes steppers are quite powerfull at low rpms. As they go up in speed power drops. Al lot of hobby machines are built with much bigger motors because they use inexpensive higher tpi screws, thus to rapid across a distance they have to turn higher rpms. So to get the power needed at higher rpms, they wind up with brute power at cutting speeds.