Easy To Build Stepper Controller from Recycled Materials

Step 11 Possible Uses and Conclusion

~UPDATE~ I have attached a newer version of the schematic for the 3 Axis Controller.  It is and eagle CAD Board and Schematic. 

Possible uses of this controller could be:
-A cnc machine (build 3)
-Plotter (build 3)
-or anything else that requires a percise amount of movment.

This Concludes my instructable. I hope you found it interesting and helpful. Feel free to modify my design and let me know how it turned out. If you liked my instructable, please vote for it in the Epilog Laser Cutter Contest.

~Update~
Here is the three axis setup instructions and schmatic

To configure the program, follow to above steps, except when you go to enter the number of axis', enter 3. For the configuration, follow the steps above for the first axis, for the second axis, keep it the same as the above steps, except in the first four phase lines, enter the following:

"XXXX1000XXXX
XXXX0100XXXX
XXXX0010XXXX
XXXX0001XXXX"

For the last axis, follow the same steps of the other axis', only copy this into the first four phases

"XXXXXXXX1000
XXXXXXXX0100
XXXXXXXX0010
XXXXXXXX0001"

***For Support on this Project, Please use the forum on my website. Just go to http://colvins.ca and click the forum link on the side bar.***

Comments

[Asa J]

Ok, here it goes again. When I try to jog the motor just vibrates. Also I notice that as soon as i connect the red motor wire to Positive it locks up.
One other thing, the port monitor numbers the port pins differently than you have here, and my X axis seems to run on pins 2, 3, 4, and 5.  Sorry if that's too much to address.

[zoot686]

Ok, it's supposed to lock up when you hook the hot wire up, and the reason it vibrates when you try to jog is because you have two of the other four wires connected in the wrong order, in that it's taking one step forward, then a step backwards, andt hen another step forward over and over again, and it seems like it's vibrating because it's doing this so quickly.
disconnect one two of the four wires and reverse them and try it again

[gatts]

Hi guys need a bit of help here, 2 of my three motors lock nicely (z & x) when I charge them, but 1 (y) does nothing, then when i open turbocnc, the dead 1(y) locks and another 1(x) stops locking, then when i jog, z axis turns 4 increments, y the same, (im guessing this is normal) but when i jog x, y axis makes strange noise, and turns a bit. (x motor still dead). Any idea whats happening here? Help would be REALLY appreciated.

[sxyuklad]

And if my motor is more than 500mA and it is alot more than what a ULN2003 can handle. What should I do? Because when I connect it blows up the chip everytime. Please help.Does the motor coiling start from yellow or black? which is A1, A2, B1 and B2?

[eungurean]

Better yet, use mosfets with optocouplers to be on the safe side.

[pfred2]

Better yet, build a real motor driver. You can even buy drivers today for dirt cheap. Drivers with built in hardware step sequencers. Software stepping is worthless. OK for a gee whiz desktop experiment, useless for a practical application.

[Computothought]

1k resistors + 3055 transistors?

[zoot686]

Tip142 transistors are probably better for this application

[Computothought]

tip142 aka nte270 that is a Darlington transistor? I have used the nte2013 (aka uln2003) with a 1k resistors with no problem.

[zoot686]

yes the TIP 142 is a darlington transistor rated at 10 amps(20 amp peak current) at 100 volts

[Computothought]

Those must be for the biggie stepper motors......

[zoot686]

It isn't so much the size but the current requirements, and the recent "hybrids" really suck the current.
By the same token, I've got boxes of little Nema 23 40 oz steppers that only suck 0.4 amps(400 ma) and by setting my harbor freight minilathe clone(soldby cummins tools) up with the gibs rather loose, I can drive that lathe using those 40 oz stepper motors and this circuit.

And no, I'm not pulling 36" per minute rapid travels or cutting at .015 feed per revolution in hard steel.
Think 5 inches per minute rapid travels as the torque curve of stepper motors starts at it's highest and goes down as the pulses per second increases.

After all, you're not going to built a hurco vertical machining center using this circuit.
This circuit is designed to be built for pocket change and run a little homebrewed cnc mill, router, or lathe for hobby use.

[gatts]

Would you know how to wire this hybrid- http://elabz.com/driving-a-bipolar-stepper-motor-with-arduino-and-uln2803ag/ ??? Cant find a sch for it anywhere. Help would be much appreciated!!!

[sxyuklad]

Should the lpt set to ECP, Bi-Directional or any other mode. Please reply soon. Because I am fed up of this now. I have spent alot of money and made this driver so many times, it not working. Motor gets the power and tries to sort of resist when I try to rotate it with my hand, but is not moving at all from the pc. Please help, where could be the problem???

[murray484]

Are you using TurboCNC?  Regarding your other question, yes, the chip will blow up if your motor draws over 500ma.  If you exceed this limit, you must add extra transistors that can handle more current.  As for the color of the motor coil wire, it varies for each motor.  The best way to check that is to use a multimeter on the resistance setting and to probe the coils.  There are several tutorials on the internet.

Hope this helps.

[sxyuklad]

Yes, turboCNC as well as Kcam. Which transistors should I use? can you suggest any? Should I also need to hook up a resistor between the chip and the transistor? If yes, what value? Thank you!

[flemron]

i don't get how you can use pins 17,16,14 and 1 to control another axis. any chance you could help me get my head around this? parallel has 8 data pins doesn't it? so i can see how you can do 2 axis. But i don't get the 3rd one. Thanks for your help.

[zenitron]

here's a good link that should answer to your question. http://www.beyondlogic.org/spp/parallel.htm

Pins 2 to 9 are Data Out pins. Pins 1, 14, 16, 17 are Control In/Out pins. This adds up to a total of 12 pins for your OUT connections, which you need for your 3 stepper motors (4 wires X 3 motors).

Anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hope it helps.

[zoot686]

You're right about those pins being control pins and thus being either input or output pins.

I just checked to make sure they'd do TTL output with an LED

[bryanb333]

um me  thinks you conected pin one to grnd which would be no good

[murray484]

Sorry, I just updated the schematic.

[zoot686]

according to the link below, using the phase drive schema rather than the usual step/direction schema, one should be able to run in interleaved mode thus doubling the number of steps per revolution compared to the wave drive schema described here, thus making use of those 3.6 degree and 1.8 degree steppers.

http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/control2/sequence.html#two-coil