It took 2 weeks, but I got Movement!!!
Congrats!
Thanks. It was a lot harder than it should have been. Computer issues. No Mach4, but Mach3.
Sweet! Was it a configuration issue?
@Dale_Royer It was a computer issue. It may also have been a power supply problem. But primarily computer problem.
Glad you got it sorted out. Can’t wait to see things moving around.
@George_Allen congratulations. A lot has to go right to get stepper motors running. Usually I run motor drives with just a 555 timer circuit initially to keep computers out of the equation. To solve problems breaking them down is a successful strategy. If you can halve the variables you double your chances of figuring out what’s going on.
Yes. I did some brief calculations and thought I had the power issue pretty well covered, but I need to rethink it before I put it all together. But if I blew a driver with a regulated power supply, how could I be safe with an unregulated power supply. I just don’t know enough about those things and how to put the proper devices (fuses, relays & contacts) on them. I just think I may have blown a tb6600 Driver. That I can stomach, but I also bought a gecko 210 Driver and I cannot deal with that.
@George_Allen loads only draw the current they draw. The way you stop stepper motor drivers from blowing is to set them up at the right current. A stepper motor drive is a current regulating device. That’s their reason to be other than sequencing.
A more popular way to blow stepper motor drives is to disconnect phases while the drive is energized. Do not EVER disconnect a motor lead from a stepper drive while the drive is powered up! You might not blow a drive every time you do, but you will blow drives doing that. That is due to back EMF. It is like the same reason spark plugs spark. But stepper motor drives are crappy spark plugs. So they tend to just spark once and they’re done.
There are 2 LEDs on the stepper driver (I didn’t notice it until now). After plugging it in again, the top one was off and the bottom one came back on. Any idea what each means?
Given the large loads I’m likely to draw, would you advise a large unregulated supply or multiple regulated ones. Also, do consider the economics. I have considered ATX PSUs, but I don’t think their voltages go nearly high enough. The unregulated ones I saw on Automation Technologies are frankly out of my price range. It’s hard to know where to reduce costs without sacrificing safety or quality
I was currently running (for trial purposes) a 48V 400 watts and 8A peak PSU. I have a meanwell 36V with 14A (but only 350 watts).
I read the way to determine PSU for a system was a factor of their inductance in mH. I don’t know if that accounts for velocity
@George_Allen No you don’t. If you have a 36V supply at 14A you have a 504W supply. Your 48V supply is 384W
I wouldn’t get too hung up on it. Either you have enough power or you don’t. If you don’t, you could burn out your supply if it doesn’t like being run at full power all the time, or you will just not go as fast as you could with a bigger supply. The consequence of too small a supply is a reduction in the peak potential speed and torque (both holding and dynamic), but how often are you running at full speed? In reality, there are more things going to cause you problems than the size of your PSU if its either of the ones you have.
I run a meanwell 24V at 14.6A without issue on NEMA23s with a peak holding power of 1.9Nm at 2.8A
@Mike_Thornbury If I’m running my drivers at 3A RMS, 4.2A peak, is that too much for my stepper motors? They are supposed to be rated for 3A (57bygh115-003 Nema 23’s 425 Oz/In (3Nm)) on a 36V 350Watt power supply
They seem to run ok, warm but not scorching hot
@Robert_Hogstedt the RMS is what to look out for. You can get away with fairly large spikes for short periods of time. The only thing I can think of to kill a motor is heat. Too hot and the insulation on the windings will melt/deteriorate and cause a short. Think of an incandescent light bulb.
@George_Allen the TB6600 recommended voltage rating is 42V. Absolute max is 50v where magic smoke gets let out.
If you were running 48v, chance are you probably did blow the drive. To play it safe and have some headroom, I only run max 36volts when using TB6600’s
Try the 36volt and see if the drive still works.
I use a bunch of Geckodrives, they are good for 70volts.
Yes, I think I did. No worries, I just discovered I have 3 extras lying around. I didn’t realize they were tb6600. I’ve had them for over a year. Initially, I was going to use them for my MDF CNC until I built an Ox with TinyG Controller & later GRBL.
Yes, I have one of those geckos. Cost me an arm and a leg. I still haven’t wired it up yet. I’ve got to figure out which resistors to put where. I really liked the convenience of the G520, but it was cost prohibitive for me. Especially, if I can’t get it working optimally. I also saw Automation Technologies had a BOB for the Gecko 210s where they mounted directly to the BOB. That was one of the least expensive BOBs they had at about $60.
@George_Allen the gecko is a great drive if you want the most performance from a stepper motor. Very few drives work better than a gecko and I have several dozen different ones here that I have tested and used over the years. Very reliable, I have some older gecko drives that are about 12years old running my cnc. My newer ones are gecko servos.
If you have any questions, just ask