Rotary table stepper software, anything free available?

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

I have now fitted a 180 Ncm stepper motor (From Arc Euro) to my rotary table and connected it up to the "Steve Ward" rotary table controller. I am using a TB6560 based stepper driver bought on Ebay and a keypad from an old phone. It seems to be working without any problems.

Les.

[DazzamatazzParticipant @dazzamatazz]

Hi Les

Are the TB6560 stepper drivers any good. i have been looking at these for a project.

Darren

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Darren,
This is the only stepper driver I have bought so I don't have anything to compare it to. It seems to be working OK. I did consider building one using power transistors or mosfets but decided this was cheaper. I did order one first from China but it never arrived. This one is from a UK seller. (It looked like it was the same as the one I ordered from China.)

Les.

[joegibParticipant @joegib]

Just to add to the remarks made by Les about the TB6560 driver, I acquired one of these from a Chinese source for use in a Steve Ward division controller — this one:

In the outcome I used another driver in my actual unit but I did test out the TB6560 unit in my controller setup. This was with a current limit of 1 Amp per channel and a voltage of 18 Volts (max for this chip is 24V). At those settings it performed fine in all operating modes.

However, this is a single-axis driver used within fairly modest operating limits. Going by the talk on places like CNC Zone, single-PCB, multi-axis drivers based on the TB6560 have a very poor reputation. So, I'd hesitate to use this chip/board for a more demanding/complex project.

Joe

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

The single board seems far better than the multi axis boards.

I have supplied nearly 50 single axis units to Loughborough University for use in non critical units in the material testing labs, so far none has given any problem but out of 5 multi axis units also bought for non critical applications all 5 have failed despite being run at well under operating limits. 4 of these 5 have been replaced by 3 single axis units and are still running fine.

The 5th, which is mine still needs to be replaced.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Here is my indexer built mostly from the scrap box. Had to buy the stepper motor, Oldham coupling and the display. It looks tatty but it works fine.

Les.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

After a few distractions I have now finished putting together my rotary table controller, Thanks due to JS for selling me his spare bits and to Steve Ward for designing it in the first place

The case is made from two lids from some Polycarbonate enclosures that were too full of holes to be usable. I used a switch mode PSU from an old Compaq laptop (18 volts at 4A) and I positioned it so I did not need to get involved with any mains voltage wiring. The only thing actually held in position by screws is the stepper driver, everything else is located by blocks and trapped between the front and back of the case.

The handle is not really for carrying, but I just had it so I use it to 'hang' the controller near the mill when I use the table.

.The overall size is 260×140 and less then 30mm thick. One thing I am curious about is that after leaving it running for several hours absolutely nothing gets even warm. The motor though seems to have more than enough power.

There are some more pictures of the insides in album titled Steve Ward Indexer.

 

Ian P

Edited By Ian Phillips on 18/09/2014 21:41:51

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