Simple way to control nema stepper motor

[ray jones 1Participant @rayjones1]

I am new to this stepper motor and drives board.

I am trying to set up a simple power feed to a bench mill as shown on some of theses threads.

I have one NEMA 34 MOTOR ,, Mains power unit,, Mega Arduino board and

TB 6600 Stepping motor driving board.

fitting the motor to the mill is the easy bit..

I am not looking for full CNC. All I want is power feed, ,,variable speed and forward and reverse.

Is there such a thing as a simple method to program or wire the driver and board please .

regards

ray

[ray jones 1Participant @rayjones1]

CNC QUERY

[SteamgeekParticipant @steamgeek]

I used one of these **LINK** with a TB6560 board and a 24 volt power supply and it works a treat.

I used it to make a cross slide power feed for my ML7, have a look in my photo album

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

That site has only 1 left in stock. I too am interested in a drive controller for a mill table. are there any more alternative controllers and any info on steppers ?

Clive

[SteamgeekParticipant @steamgeek]

I spent a couple of months researching this topic and eventually turned up that device, I did not find any alternatives. What started as a relatively simple idea turned out to be quite a chore, but I have to say I am very pleased with the result. I did think about powering a rotary table for the mill using the same solution.

[MM57Participant @mm57]

Depends how acquainted you are with Arduino programming and electronics – if you've never done anything, there will have to be an investment in time for learning and trying..otherwise a canned commercial/semi-commercial unit may be best.

A random "tb6600 arduino" Google comes up with **LINK** – it's attached pdf looks reasonable, and the basics of the code are there, but it only sends the motor one way then the other, You would have to modify it to interface to say a three way toggle switch (left/off/right) and a potentiometer (speed adjust). If you have no clue how to do that, then there may be other Arduino examples out there that do it, or the canned unit may be best

[Steve FParticipant @stevef]

Ray

I think you must be hiding in my house and watching what i am doing.

regards

Steve

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi Ray

This little devise can pulse two stepper motor drivers (drivers not provided with the device).

**LINK**

I used one for a small project a while back. It worked well, I have no connection to the company.
The small buttons on it can be used directly or larger more robust buttons can be wired to it.
There is a single speed control pot that controls both motors.

Regards
John

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 17/03/2015 08:18:18:

That site has only 1 left in stock. I too am interested in a drive controller for a mill table. are there any more alternative controllers and any info on steppers ?

Clive

Still available direct from Hong Kong

Very interesting: HTH

Rod

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

To answer the OP's question, arguably the SIMPLE way is just to drive the "step" input with a train of pulses and provide the "direction" pin with a switchable (high or low) signal. Cue febrile opinions on how best to make a simple signal generator (555, bistable, Arduino, Raspberry Pi)…..

The simplest (first?) program that many people run in almost any microcontroller application is the "LED blink". If you are happy to play with software, that's the basis of what you need to generate a pulse train and you can play with the time variables or set it with a control voltage (from a pot). Or you can just buy one of the boxes from the internet.

Depends if "simple" means buying something, making a simple circuit yourself or writing some software. Choices, choices…

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Cue febrile opinions on how best to make a simple signal generator (555, bistable, Arduino, Raspberry Pi)…..

The steampunk way to control your stepper motors is with one of these:

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

As Muzzer implies it is easy to over think this with fancy computer stuff. You can even make the pulser with a little electric motor, a switch, and the model train controller you've got in that box of useful things.

What would help though is for some people to simply list the stepper motor size/type/current/ torque/voltage, gear ratio, and size of mill they are using it on with report of whether it is under/over powered.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Neil,

May I ask what one of them is, not to sure what I'm looking at particularly at that angle.

Thanks,

Martin P

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Do Stepper Motors understand Morse then?

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

dah dit dah dah dah

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Nice key Neil, can you use it? Or do you make a "fist" of it?

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Neil's Vibroplex post is scary-spooky because I only decided this afternoon to make a bug key as my next project! I shall have to scale the dimensions from a photo because I don't have plans or a real bug to copy. Now Neil has provided just the picture I need. That's what I call service! The man must be a mind reader…

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Bob Brown 1 on 17/03/2015 19:32:29:

dah dit dah dah dah

That's pretty much what I expected!

Edited By V8Eng on 17/03/2015 20:49:43

[dcostaParticipant @dcosta]

Hello Ray,
You can find **HERE** a Stepper Motor Driver.
I use one of those to control the table in my BF20 Milling Machine. See **HERE** .

Regards
Dias Costa

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

There is a picture of one I made in my album, very easy to make and set up. Not used by many DX.rs now as its mostly side band voice.

The Bug key is a little more difficult to make as you need thin Phosphor bronze sheet on the armature and setting up can be quite difficult depending on the users ability to not only read morse but send fast. The weighted armature allows repetitive dots and dashes as the armature oscillates.

Clive

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Ray,
           This is how to program your arduino board.
Is the code you have written (Or plan to write.) in "C" or assembler ? If it is in "C" then the aduino development package compiles the code and programs the microcontroller on the Arduino board in one step. If it is written in assembler then you would use Atmel studio to asemble the code into a HEX file. You could then use your arduino board running one of the programs (Written in "C" available on the web that would make the Arduino board behave as a programmer to program a spare microcontoller of the same type as the one on your arduino board. This method will only work if the Arduino that you have uses a plug in microcontroller.

Les.

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 18/03/2015 16:55:14

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 18/03/2015 16:55:31

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Ray, The 6600 number is the chip not the board. Therefore there are several boards marketed with this number in the title but they will have different connections and perhaps arrange the controls differently. So I suggest a picture at least and some more information.

Really this is not much of an electronics forum or as you have seen above there are some experts who assume you are already pretty knowledgeable. I think you might do better to enquire on a CNC or Reprap forum with sufficient information about your driver and motor and your own level of expertise.

Do this seperately from the Arduino bit to start with. When you have got it set up for basic manual control you can decide whether to go for the computer route or a simple pulse generator.

[Steve FParticipant @stevef]

Ray

I thought i should add some more information regarding my earlier picture of a rather untidy Arduino Stepper combo.

I wanted to build a power feed using a stepper. I bought a 3A stepper driver for £5.50. It requires 3 incoming signals. Enable=power to the motor (this holds it so it cant be moved) ,Step direction=0v to go one way and +5v to go the other and Step=0v to + 5v and back to 0v to step one step of 200.

MEW issues 118 & 119 show you how to build a power feed using a 555 timer I/C + discrete components. The circuits are all included in the article.

I did consider doing this but i also enjoy writing software and i thought the task would suit the Arduino Uno. The Arduino + LCD display only cost £7.60 so not a big investment. The Arduino IDE uses the 'C' programming language and gives full control of all the Input/output pins of the Arduino. The program can be downloaded easily to the Arduino board and tested tme after time. The software gives flexibilty to add functionality not easily achieved using a 555 timer I/C.

My current unit offers Manual control in either direction + speed control that is remembered for each direction. Sofware setting of end limits, Semi Auto single push button to start automated move between limits at the remembered speed and last Auto moves back and forward at the 2 speeds between limits all day long.

But this is still work in progress. You are welcome to a copy of the Arduino C program. I am quite happy with it's current operation but it needs more bells and whistles.

regards

Steve

.

[Paul BarrettParticipant @paulbarrett57424]

Steve F.

I have sent you a pm.

Paul

[ray jones 1Participant @rayjones1]

hi chaps, thank you everyone for the various information and ideas.

I am still working on it . I will keep you advised of progress …regards ray

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