Hi all.
Recently finished, well almost finished CNC router, see my Build Blog HERE was travelling a bit slow, not what you would call rapids at 500 mm/min.
My initial setup was with the ubiquitus Toshiba chipped TB6560 24V system single control board for the three axis and it worked ok and quiet and smooth at 800 or 1600 steps per rev no problems but a full X axis travell took about 90 seconds you know grass grows faster type of thing.
So the upgrade after talking to a mate and a bit of reading etc I purchased three M542H controllers in a kit with a five axis BOB and then a 48V 10A supply to go with as I was told more volts = more speed.
Connected it all upand could not get the motors, NEMA 23 280 in oz, to turn, lots of grumbling and groaning but not a turn.
Finally stumbled upon the fact that I needed to set the maximum pulse width in Mach3 of 5us and away they went, but not all three axis wanted to run the same all just a little different but they ran.
Tried for ages to get them all the same, X ran the best and I managed to double my initial speed to 1000 mm/min but not smooth or quiet, turning but growling not singing like they should.
The PC driving this is an old XP 1Ghz machine, I had tried the different Kernal speeds and over a couple of days of trying different tuning of the motors etc, all of a sudden the Z axis stopped followed by the Y and the X over the next couple of days.
All the time I was swapping contollers arround to see if they had died but they all still worked individually up until the last so I put it down to the BOB or the LPT port.
Next step put all the old gear back to see if that worked and it did as before with no problems.
What now?
It was suggested that I needed a "Smooth Stepper" or another option was a "UC100" I have also considered running it from one of my Laptops running Win 7 and USB interface.
Suggestions welcome on what next with these controllers etc.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The steppers had been disconnected in the middle picture to reconnet to the old board.
Nico.