[EngraverGar]

I was having trouble with the text selection and the word processing on new threads and had a melt down.

Anyway, I have built an engraver , for garage use, and used what I could find for hardware. This is what I have, one Vexta unipolar NEMA 23 2 phase motor for the Z axis, two Vexta unipolar NEMA 34 2 phase motors for the X and Y. All motors are 5.5 dcv and 1.5 A. The spindle motor is an AC induction motor from Oriental Motor.
I want to build the electronics to run it but don't have any experience in this area. I would like to use MACH 3 software. This is what I think I need. I need a breakout board, I need a 3 axis driver board or boards for each motor, and I need a 48v power supply capable of 5 to 10 A. I also need a relay card to start the spindle .
I liked the looks of Utube neo7cnc's control box but he is running bipolar and I think the card details are vague and slightly different. Can someone please help with recommendations on part #'s so I can use to get this running. I don't really want cheap but economical quality. Whatever that might be.
Thanks to all for help!

[aarggh]

The problem you have is that unipolar steppers aren't as commonly available for CNC as bipolar are (in the better driver category anyway), so most of the mainstream drivers don't support them. One that would probably be the best you'll find for a reasonable price is the Linistepper, although I'm sure there's others:

RULMS2:LiniStepper Driver kit CLOSE OUT! massmind

It's a proven design, unlike the crappy 6560 style controllers that flood Ebay.

There are some good reasons for eventually ditching the unipolar if you can afford it down the track, this site has some good info (skip down to "MOTORS":

Page 2

cheers, Ian

[EngraverGar]

Thank you Ian and I'm sorry about the melt down regarding the word processing. I have been on a number of forums and this is the first time I encountered as many problems typing as I have on this forum. I went to settings and think I have figured it out. Again, sorry!
I will check out your recommendations. I have a couple other questions.
So would it be wise to go ahead and use the uni's as bipolar and get one of the common drivers?
I patterned my build like a rotary Meistergram as they seem to be well thought of. Searching I found the control box for one has Rheostats for controlling speed on each axis, is that necessary?
Thanks,
Gary

[aarggh]

No problems Gary, happens to us all.

I can well and truly sympathise with anyone getting CNC thinking they'll do it on the cheap, or use stuff that is free or extremely cheap. The reality can often be quite the opposite however unless the builder has a ready supplier of dirt cheap parts. Regardless, if you get into it in a big way, it will probably be the most expensive investment most people will make after a house, car or boat, not necessarily in that order! And sometimes doing it on the cheap can cause issues that can run into lots of dollars wasted or a great deal of time lost. How suitable your steppers are for rewiring to take advantage of the great drivers available I can't say, but hopefully they are and will provide decent power, although knowing what I now know after having gone through the whole CNC saga several times, I'd ditch them in a heartbeat and buy some nice cheap new low inductance ones suitable for a G540 all-in-one driver.

Having said that, some people do rewire unipolar steppers as bipolar to greatly increase the torque. This article is a good read on one such stepper conversion:

Changing Unipolar Steppers To Bipolar | Hackaday

Another NI article explaining a bit more:

How Do I Use a 6-Wire Stepper Motor With My Stepper Motor Drive? - National Instruments

This link has nice figures on the torque/speed differences with unipolar, I'd take the references about losing torque at high speeds with a grain of salt however, steppers aren't servos, and while you can get good speed from them ( I can comfortably get 4m/min cutting circles on my machine, which is blindingly fast in operation), it's more the accuracy and torque you want, and most hobby machines aren't 8' x 4' anyway:

UniPolar vs BiPolar wiring schemes for 2-phase Stepper Motors

One last thing I'll point out as I had to google that Meistergram, unless your using pretty good gearing and a decent stepper, rotary work will be a problem. The cheap Chinese rotary axis's on Ebay all suffer the same issue, under load they are painfully weak and either miss steps or stall, or both, and are only suitable for very light machining in the majority of cases. I'd recommend reading up on them in the forums here to see what I mean. Ones with a harmonic drive work much better on average, but they also cost a lot more.

cheers, Ian

[EngraverGar]

I will take your comments into consideration and look at your further recommendations. Thank you for your help. You are the first person to provide what I see as good solid information with the vagueness left out. And for what it worth the Chinese junk has never been a consideration as I would miss a meal or two to get something that will last and perform. I think I have used good mechanics for my machine. I have anti backlash ball screws as my carriers mounted on a rock solid steel frame about 75 pounds.
Gary