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Affordable Stepper Motor Driver Source?

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raynerd:
Hello
I`ve recently made another CNC rotary table divider as posted initially by Kwackers. I`ve actually made 2, one for a project I have underway and another for a local chap who has helped me with my machining. I`ve not picked the motors yet, but they will probably be something like the 180Nm bipolar.

Call me a tight arse but I was reluctant to spend the £42.50 on the Bi-polar 4.2A motors I used last time from ArcEuro but I`ve just looked and those drivers are now £62 which I just can`t afford.  I do very much appreciate the good quality of these drivers but I can`t pay that at present.

Truth is, I don`t know a great deal about stepper motors and drivers but they won`t be needing to do a great deal of milling so won`t need a lot of torque. They will mainly be being used just to drive the table in divisions. Can anyone recommend a source to purchase so reasonably priced stepper motor drivers and perhaps even the motors if you have any suggestions?

Appreciate any help.

sparky961:
Chris,

I've worked extensively with the A3977 bipolar driver from Allegro.  It is an excellent option in my opinion and there are a few boards out there that use it as the base.  I got a 4-axis set from pminmo.com a few years back, but I'm not sure if he's still making them.  The addition of a small microcontroller would make for a complete setup.

I also designed some modular boards that used the same (A3977) driver chip on a daughter board piggybacked to another board with a Motorola/Freescale 68S08 microcontroller.  I'd be happy to send you schematics/board layout if you wanted to go that route.

BTW, did you get my email response via Gmail?  I never heard back so I'm thinking maybe you didn't?

-Sparky

raynerd:
Hi Sparky,  thanks for the reply. I must admit, despite making the pcb for the divider and putting together that circuit, I`m not really keen to go through the process again and was hoping to purchase something ready built to use! I`m in the UK as well so any links to a ready to a run unit based on this chip and I`d be interested!

Regarding your emails, no not got anything. I emailed you a few weeks back but didn`t get a reply so presumed you hadn`t got it or weren`t interested! I`ll pm you to clarify your email address and if you could please pm me your email so I`ll add it to my filter list - I must admit, I have my spam filter pretty tight!!

Any more suggestions welcome. I guess in total, in an ideal world I`d be paying max £30-40 for the driver. I was willing to pay the £42.50 for the arc one...so I guess that would be my max budget.

Chris

kayz1:
Hi Chris, have you seen these?
http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3179-standalone-computer-controlled-unipolar-stepper-motor-driver.htm

Not got started as yet myself as only just got a Chester 16v Mill and a 9*20 lathe, but i will be putting a motor
at least on the ( uppy downy ) be of the Mill as i have a duff right shoulder.
PS: i too will start asking very soon..
Regards. Lyn ( male ) it's Welsh....

raynerd:
Kayz1 - thanks for the suggestion but they are unipolar.  Now in all honesty I don`t know why but in my dealings with stepper motors before with my other cnc divider, mill power feed and cnc router, I`ve always been advised to use bipolar motors and drivers!  I don`t know what the difference is in terms of function but I think I`d prefer to stick to what I`ve used...

Thanks for the suggestion though. Chris

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