[interzis]

regarding Gecko's manuals:

The power supply voltage is determined by multiplying the square root of the motor’s inductance by 32, as in the example below for a 2mH rated motor:
32 * (√2) = 45VDC

so, find out your stepper's inductance and use this formula to find the proper voltage.

[H500]

Is it possible to supply this board with 5V only ?

No. Ignore the voltage rating on your motors. It does not matter. The important thing is the current rating.

[julien_lyon]

Hello,

On the datasheet of my stepper motor (ref : RH7-1048) it's write 5.2V/phase and 1.4A/phase.
It's a 6 wire motor, so, I can used it like a 4 wire motor and so used it with 10.4V.
I give you the datasheet.
I'm afraid to use a power supply of 12V instead of 5V or 10V....

Thanks for your help

[interzis]

as H500 said, ignore the stepper's voltage rating.
if I am correct, your stepper inductance per winding is 5,5 mH
so, for bipolar-series you'll have 11mH and your maximum voltage (for the drivers) is 106v !!!
don't be scared!

so, you can safely power your board at it's maximum supported voltage.
they said 36v but for this board is too much, at least for the 7812 regulator

[aarggh]

Hello, I'm new on this forum.
I would like to buy a 3 axis stepper controller TB6560.

Unless you really, really, desperately need to save some money on the drivers, or your using them for a fairly small machine like a Sable or similar, I'd strongly recommend dumping the 6560 if you can and go for a Gecko G540 as many people here and elsewhere would suggest. You will be stunned by the high torque and smooth operation at higher speeds you'll get with the Gecko's!

I replaced my crappy 6560 drivers with one, and couldn't believe the difference, I can get the cnc to fly now and it's very smooth and quiet!

cheers,
Ian

[Claytonc]

Well, I've done the mods suggested and now I have no movement at all. I have selected "Step Low (Green check)" in settings. When I try to opperate I can hear the steppers lock and then when trying movement I see the numbers on the screen move and the lights on the 6560 come on and stay on. If I select "step low (red x)" then the same thing happens except the lights in the 6560 get brighter the more I try to go in a specific direction and go back out when I back off. Motors lock and unlock so I've not blown the board (yet).

Any suggestions?

[julien_lyon]

Hi,
Thanks for all your response.
I have a new view of this stepper controller.
Thanks to all

[H500]

On the datasheet of my stepper motor (ref : RH7-1048) it's write 5.2V/phase and 1.4A/phase.
It's a 6 wire motor, so, I can used it like a 4 wire motor and so used it with 10.4V.

If you use bipolar series, the current must be limted to 1.0 amps, not 1.4.

As I said, ignore the voltage. It does not apply when using a chopper drive like the tba6560. I have motors "rated" at 3v. I never used less than 34v with them.

If you don't believe me, look at the manual from any of the board vendors. None of them care what the motor's volt rating is.

[H500]

Well, I've done the mods suggested and now I have no movement at all.

For debugging, try using a very low step rate, so that you can see the individual steps.

You might have connected something wrong. Do you have an oscilloscope?

[Claytonc]

For debugging, try using a very low step rate, so that you can see the individual steps.

You might have connected something wrong. Do you have an oscilloscope?

No scope... I'm actually leaning towards splurging on the g540 anyway. I really wanted to build a quality machine from the start. I just cut my costs in a place I shouldn't have. Knowing that I will probably build another (maybe out of 8020) machine I know I can always use the 540 on it since its well equipped to do more than I will be using it for on my current Solsylva 24" x 48" machine.
Matter of fact ,while typing this I just ordered the G540 and got it for $247 delivered. I WANT TO CUT SOMETHING dangit!
Anyone want to buy a slightly modified 4 axis (semi working?) 6560? LOL!
I just paid $86 w/shipping. So, with the mods sort of (done?) I would take 60 plus shipping if anyone is interested. I will even include all the extra resistors, caps and voltage regulators I bought for it. Oh, and several of the inverter chips as well. I will have no use for them now. And, If it turns out that the board can not be made to work I will refund your money
Contact me threw PM if interested and I'll send pics or whatever.
I hope I'm not doing anything wrong by mentioning the board is for sale???

[rajshinai]

Unless you really, really, desperately need to save some money on the drivers, or your using them for a fairly small machine like a Sable or similar, I'd strongly recommend dumping the 6560 if you can and go for a Gecko G540 as many people here and elsewhere would suggest. You will be stunned by the high torque and smooth operation at higher speeds you'll get with the Gecko's!

I replaced my crappy 6560 drivers with one, and couldn't believe the difference, I can get the cnc to fly now and it's very smooth and quiet!

cheers,
Ian

hey ian,
Im interested in buying the 6560...since iv just built a small mdf machine to check if i coudl build one and if i could buy all the parts locally.
im in india, so the price of building anything (hardware) is about 1/4th the cost of parts available on ebay etc.well except the electronics....cheap labour = low cost parts..
im getting drivers similar to gecko203 for INR 4,800/- each, which i cant spend right now (saving it for a bigger machine)..

* R the chinese driver so inefficient?

[julien_lyon]

Hi all,
I have buy my chinese TB6560.
I have made all modification describe on this forum.
But, 1 of my 3 axes doesn't work....
I'm using EMC2 and when I try to move my Y axes, nothing appear and I can turn manually my motor, like if it's not powered.
But, when I stop to move it with EMC2, I can't anymore turn manually the motor.
I have check all paralelle port configuration and all axes are configurated with the same way.
I don't have an oscilloscope to check signal, I just have a voltmeter.
Do you have any idea ?
Thanks for your help

PS : sorry for my bad english....

[aarggh]

I can turn manually my motor, like if it's not powered.
But, when I stop to move it with EMC2, I can't anymore turn manually the motor.

If it's locking at power up, I could be wrong but it sounds like one coil pair on the axis has the wires swapped? Manually check the colours of wires going to the motors that work, and check the A/-A and B/-B connections on the drivers board to try and match it up. You may have to play around with swapping wires over till it's right.

cheers,
Ian

[Connor]

Hi all,
I have buy my chinese TB6560.
I have made all modification describe on this forum.
But, 1 of my 3 axes doesn't work....
I'm using EMC2 and when I try to move my Y axes, nothing appear and I can turn manually my motor, like if it's not powered.
But, when I stop to move it with EMC2, I can't anymore turn manually the motor.
I have check all paralelle port configuration and all axes are configurated with the same way.
I don't have an oscilloscope to check signal, I just have a voltmeter.
Do you have any idea ?
Thanks for your help

PS : sorry for my bad english....

If your using EMC, you may need to invert one of the enable pins. EMC only has 1 output for enable, and the board takes a enable per stepper. I had to invert one of mine. Use the stepperconf to check and see which one needs to be inverted.

[julien_lyon]

Hi,
I have invert one of mine enable pin and it's working perfectly.
Thank you for your help

[PietVR]

Hi all

I have bought 6 of the 4-axis TB6560 controllers. I had the same problems with 2 of these bought about 4 months ago, so I ordered more to replace these 2 and have some in stock.

The problem is that after cutting the attached g-code file the x and y axis does not return to zero. I do not hear steps being lost while cutting, and when using on some other g-code files the cards seems to work fine. Now with these letter files some of the cards loses as much as 12.27mm on x and 7.85mm on y, nothing on z.

Are there any of you willing to run an air-cut test on the attached g-code file and let me know what your findings are? Please!

I have removed tool changes and spindle starts for the test file.

One of the cards blew the y-axis after about 30mins into my test. I don't know if it worth buying these things anymore. I had a 5 axis catching fire about a year ago.

I am running Mach3.

Thanks in advance

Piet

[icecreamjones]

hello, I got this board a few weeks ago and couldn't get it to run good at all. After I figured out the chinese PSU was way too wimpy (24v 4.5A rating, kept stalling out the whole drive), I still couldn't get it to go in the correct direction or run in different speeds. Was getting ready to buy something else.
I spent over a week hacking out the settings (EMC2 & Mach3) that work for me. I am posting them in case someone else is having this problem.

EMC 2 ubuntu 10.0.4 settings

Step time : 50000 ns
Step space: 1000
Dir Hold : 1000
Dir Setup : 50000
75% current
25% decay
1/2 step mode
max acc 15in ^2
max vel 1.4 in/sec

I spent probably 40 hrs testing this thing and it was completely worthless until I stumbled on to this setup. Miss steps consistently and reverse direction if you even push on it a tiny bit. Never go the right direction twice in a row. Worst of all, it wouldn't run slow. Between 20-30 ipm (5/inch ballscrew) was the only speed. That is too fast to cut on my lathe.
Now it runs perfect with full power, 300oz in nema 23 (cutting aluminum on a 1937 atlas lathe). It is just amazing how this thing went from chump to champ with a quick settings change.

This is only a 1 axis machine right now, 5/8' roton ball screw. (Will be motorizing X in a few weeks, hopefully it still runs well). I may upgrade to gecko in the future but at least I can run an actual program on my machine while I think about it.
I did use a couple of the mods from this thread, not sure if it mattered or not. I flipped the 3 optocouplers around and chipped off the surface mount current resistor.

many thanks to all those that contributed to the thread!

[Moffett8]

Thanks, I just ordered one of the Chinese boards.

Philip

hello, I got this board a few weeks ago and couldn't get it to run good at all. After I figured out the chinese PSU was way too wimpy (24v 4.5A rating, kept stalling out the whole drive), I still couldn't get it to go in the correct direction or run in different speeds. Was getting ready to buy something else.
I spent over a week hacking out the settings (EMC2 & Mach3) that work for me. I am posting them in case someone else is having this problem.

EMC 2 ubuntu 10.0.4 settings

Step time : 50000 ns
Step space: 1000
Dir Hold : 1000
Dir Setup : 50000
75% current
25% decay
1/2 step mode
max acc 15in ^2
max vel 1.4 in/sec

I spent probably 40 hrs testing this thing and it was completely worthless until I stumbled on to this setup. Miss steps consistently and reverse direction if you even push on it a tiny bit. Never go the right direction twice in a row. Worst of all, it wouldn't run slow. Between 20-30 ipm (5/inch ballscrew) was the only speed. That is too fast to cut on my lathe.
Now it runs perfect with full power, 300oz in nema 23 (cutting aluminum on a 1937 atlas lathe). It is just amazing how this thing went from chump to champ with a quick settings change.

This is only a 1 axis machine right now, 5/8' roton ball screw. (Will be motorizing X in a few weeks, hopefully it still runs well). I may upgrade to gecko in the future but at least I can run an actual program on my machine while I think about it.
I did use a couple of the mods from this thread, not sure if it mattered or not. I flipped the 3 optocouplers around and chipped off the surface mount current resistor.

many thanks to all those that contributed to the thread!

Hi all

I have bought 6 of the 4-axis TB6560 controllers. I had the same problems with 2 of these bought about 4 months ago, so I ordered more to replace these 2 and have some in stock.

The problem is that after cutting the attached g-code file the x and y axis does not return to zero. I do not hear steps being lost while cutting, and when using on some other g-code files the cards seems to work fine. Now with these letter files some of the cards loses as much as 12.27mm on x and 7.85mm on y, nothing on z.

Are there any of you willing to run an air-cut test on the attached g-code file and let me know what your findings are? Please!

I have removed tool changes and spindle starts for the test file.

One of the cards blew the y-axis after about 30mins into my test. I don't know if it worth buying these things anymore. I had a 5 axis catching fire about a year ago.

I am running Mach3.

Thanks in advance

Piet

[adamhixon]

Has anyone considered using the great info provided here to make their own board? That TB6560 seems to be a fine chip and does all the heavy lifting for you. The supporting hardware was just poorly implemented on these ebay rejects. The chip is available on mouser for $4.20 each. I may play around in eagle sometime. Any ideas of what an ideal schematic would include?

[doorknob]

Has anyone considered using the great info provided here to make their own board? That TB6560 seems to be a fine chip and does all the heavy lifting for you. The supporting hardware was just poorly implemented on these ebay rejects. The chip is available on mouser for $4.20 each. I may play around in eagle sometime. Any ideas of what an ideal schematic would include?

One such design is shown about halfway down the page at:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...cb_mill-2.html