Stepper motor Current rating.

Controllers Smoothie
1

Hi Guys.

just want to start by saying , Love your work keep it up.

Now for the dumb newbie questions.
I am just getting my head around setting up my Smothieboard to run as a CNC mill, I did have access to some NEMA 17 unipolar motors but see they the board runs Bi-polar motors and the 17 might be a bit light to drive the machine as well.

My question is that there is a 2A limit on the board, if you are driving 3A motors it is not going to ahve an effect on the board, just not a high output from the motors.

Thanks in advance.
Bryce

Imported from wikidot

2

Yeah, if you use the 2A drivers on 3A steppers, you won’t get full torque out of them.

I recommend you use external drivers, like the CW5045.

Cheers :slight_smile:

3

Thanks Arthur.

I thought that was the case , and remembered reading that in the notes or here but for the life of me couldnt find were I saw that.

To drive the stepper drivers it woould mean connecting off the Pins EN1, DIR1 & ST1 Respectly for each driver, so taking the Smoohie stepper driver system out of the loop.

Thanks Bryce.

4

Hi,

I am also very interested by smoothie but I have the same problem. My motors on my cnc are 57BYGH201 3.0V - 2.5A
and I think I could not wire directly on the board without externals drivers.
But please, could you explain how to bypass the on board stepper drivers ?

sorry for my bad English: im speaking french.

5

Hey !

Connecting external drivers is extremely simple, and you can do that without worrying at all about the on-board drivers.
If you need any help with it you can contact me directly at wolf.arthur@gmail.com

Connecter des drivers externes est extremement simple, et tu peux le faire sans te soucier des drivers qui sont deja sur la carte.
Si tu as besoin d’aide n’hésite pas a me contacter a wolf.arthur@gmail.com

Salut :slight_smile:

6

Hello,

i use 5XC Smoothieboard, what steppers motors do you recommend? (on a maximum)
i look on #1475 Pololu Stepper Motor: Unipolar/Bipolar, 200 Steps/Rev, 57×76mm, 4.5V, 2 A/Phase, may be you recommend something else…

and, sorry for my bad English: im speak Russian))

from Russia, with love))

7

Hi !

2A steppers should work fine, though they are at the limit of what Smoothie can do.

Most people use 1.68A nema17 steppers, those work perfectly.

Cheers.