[gnomore]

I am trying to build a learning lab with kflop. I will eventually use kflop to CNC my grizzly g0704. I would like to get my feet wet with kflop before I make my final decision on servo vs stepper and open loop vs closed loop vs double closed loop. Right now I would like to get a sense of what Kflop alone can handle so I want to buy some inexpensive motors and sensors to mess around with.

I was looking at these nema 17 motors.... 10 bucks each
NEMA17 Stepper Motor (KL17H247-168-4B) (1/4? dual shaft with a flat) 62 Oz In. Hybrid | Automation Technology Inc

Can these be ran directly from the kflop? Can they also be ran with a stepper driver(not talking about kstep) that is then hooked up to kflop?

Can anyone recommend the following parts that will work with kflop directly?

• Nema 17 stepper
• Cheap driver for above stepper (to see what the difference in capabilities is with the stepper hooked up directly vs through a driver)
• Cheap nema 17 or small servo (not sure if this is possible)
• Limit switch
• Emergency Stop switch
• Rotary encoder (to mess around with feedback loops)
• Linear encoder (cheap glass slide)
• Some sort of cheap pump (to emulate flood coolant)
• Some sort of cheap air valve (to emulate a mister)
• Inexpensive linear guide and screw. (so I can hook up my dial indicator and move the carriage back and fourth to test the repeatability of open loop vs closed loop)
• Coupler for the motor shaft and screw

Also anything else you can recommend off the top of your head to mess around with would be well received.

I have an extra corsair ax1200i power supply and a Mastech HY5005D-2 Dual benchtop power supply. Multimeter, metcal sp 280 soldering station. I also have an arduino uno, and a teensy++ 2.0. I also have the make microcontroller kit found here.
Ultimate Arduino Microcontroller Pack

I also have plenty of motherboards / cpu's laying around, a ton of linux/windows administration experience and am an avid C programmer. The fact that kflop requires C programming is what turned me on to it. I am a network engineer by trade (ccie) and used to be a linux server administrator that focused on virtualization. I also have some basic electronics training through a votech that I received about 15 years ago. As far as the software / computer side of the equation I have no worries. The electronics side of the equation I am in the process of brushing up on.

I do not have an oscilloscope, digital logic analyzer or function generator or any motors to mess around with.

Basically help me build a learning kit for use with the kflop.
Thanks!

[gfacer]

Well, two points would be that I'm pretty sure that kflop cannot drive motors directly, that is what the driver does. Find a driver for those nema 17's and you are good, maybe something the arduino can help with, not sure. You'll also need dual shaft motors (I believe) to hook up an encoder to test everything you say you want to, but a lot of encoders will need the kanalog board to read the signals.

I've been thinking of doing similar, but probably jumping right to servo driver control with encoders back to kflop, Either using servo drives with +/- 10v analog input or the double encoder loop setup (drive and kflop monitoring the loop).....but my preference is the analog input so I don't get one system fighting the other.

As for the pumps....a relay and some lights would probably work too. Relays will be the key, just figure out what voltages you need to work with and what the trigger voltage of the kflop is.

cnc4pc.com probably has alot of what you need and sells the kflop too (although not the add on boards). It's where I've been looking.

Have fun!

[bhurts]

K-flop is a powerful motion controller with lots of i/o. It is not a motor driver. It will hook to any drive that uses step direction but doesn't power motors directly. With kanalog it will output to +- 10v analog drives. With kstep it will run 4 steppers. With snapamp it will run 2 brushless motors, 2 stepper motors or 4 brush dc motors. It will run most 3rd party drives but they must meet the requirements for step/dir setup time. If you can go with k-motion cnc. It is not everyone's favorite for looks but it is rock solid and runs very smooth toolpaths.

Ben

[gnomore]

K-flop is a powerful motion controller with lots of i/o. It is not a motor driver. It will hook to any drive that uses step direction but doesn't power motors directly. With kanalog it will output to +- 10v analog drives. With kstep it will run 4 steppers. With snapamp it will run 2 brushless motors, 2 stepper motors or 4 brush dc motors. It will run most 3rd party drives but they must meet the requirements for step/dir setup time. If you can go with k-motion cnc. It is not everyone's favorite for looks but it is rock solid and runs very smooth toolpaths.

Ben

Thank you that makes sense.

Taking into consideration what you posted, can anyone recommend a couple drivers to check out?

What would be the best stepper driver available with regards to noise / vibration reduction?

An analog driver would do me well so I could compare and contrast first hand.