[Fifty_ohm]

I had to go back and look at the schematic again... The first coil would be pins 1 and 2 (or x1 as in your example). Coil 2 would be 3 and 4 (or x2 as in your example). As you look at the four pins in the connector it doesn't matter which direction you count from as long as you remain constant on all the connectors.

Glad to hear that you made sense of my babling. Most people just go glassy eyed and fake a stroke.

[emtffkev]

Ok, let me make sure that I have this right.

In the picture I attached I crudely drew the motor with the appropriate wires on it. The red and yellow and orange and brown may be flip flopped, but I know for sure that the black and green are the common wires on each coil. Is this how I want to hook it?

Also what is a good way to test and make sure that it isn't a problem with the board itself. The board has never been tested. Will the motors lock up if I add power to the board without the connection to the computer?

[Fifty_ohm]

The connections are correct but if you connect the motor as you have in the drawing it will be a half coil arrangment. It will work but you won't get full torque from the motor. You'll probably want to go across both coils (red to yellow (x1) and orange to brown (x2)) and not use the black and green lines at all (just cover the ends of those wires with heat shrink or electrical tape to keep them from shorting to anything). That way the current flows through both coils and you'll get much higher torque.

I used an opto-isolated breakout board when I smoke checked (tested) my drivers with the motors attached but I'm not saying that is the proper method to test things out. I just didn't really have another way to do it. I figured that if something smoked at least I shouldn't lose the computer.
Check to make sure the driver transistors and motor aren't getting too hot after it's powered up.

If you power up the board without input from the computer the stepper should lock into position and hold. It won't turn as there won't be any step signals coming in but it will show that you have current to the motor.

[emtffkev]

Now I'm just a little concerned. I have the board hooked up to my power supply. I am getting a steady 23 vdc. The voltage regulator is getting hot. At the pins the voltage is steady, but it doesn't appear that I am getting any voltage past the voltage regulator....

The motor is hooked up, however not hooked to the computer yet. I can still spin the shaft freely without any resistance. Unfortunatly I don't think I have the background skill enough to trouble shoot the controller board.

If Phil is out there and reading this, can you give me some pointers on testing the board to make sure it is assembled properly? Or anyone else that has the know how to dumb this down for me?

[emtffkev]

I'm not reading any output voltage from the voltage regulator. How is that supposed to work. I have 23 volts going in, the heat sink is getting hot, and nothing coming out...

[emtffkev]

Well, i've got my stepper and power supply hooked up. When I power the unit on, nothing happens. No magic smoke, so that is a good thing. But.....The motor does not lock up either. The only thing that I have as a clue that there is even power going to the board is that the voltage regulator heats up.

I have 23 volts going into the board, once it hits the voltage regulator I have a very minute amount coming out. 13mV or so. I don't know what could be wrong, or how to test to find out. To my eye, all the traces look good, and there doesn't seem to be any bridged traces.

Help please?!? I am desperate. Once I get this part fixed, I will have my first completed machine.

[Fifty_ohm]

There should be 5vdc on the output of the regulator so either the regulator is bad or its not installed correctly. Is it possibly backwards?
Without seeing the board it makes it hard to troubleshoot.

edit - Is the power connected properly? With power off check to see that ground has continuity from the ground pin on the regulator to the ground on the power supply. Is the power DC coming into the board as this board has no rectification on it.

[emtffkev]

Well, there were a number of sketchy traces, so I decided to rebuild the board. I'm just using a regular breadboard that you can get from radioshack. This way I know I will have good traces.

I did have the voltage regulator oriented the right way according to the schematics.

[vger]

I just went through all the posts, looked at the way you have the motor connected and at the schematic for the controller. Your motors are unipolar motors, and the controller is also unipolar. Each of the output pins supplies a ground path when turned on. Of the 6 wires on your motor you know that there are 2 center tapped coils. If you connect the center taps to +4.1 volts (5 volts may work without warming the motors too much) and the ends of the coils to the board outputs you should be wired correctly. I also noted that this controller will turn on 2 coils of the motor at the same time. This is OK and may give you a little better torque at the expense of a bit of heat in the motor. Here is a good site with really good descriptions of how motors work, and other stuff too...

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_13/5.html

You mentioned schetchy traces, if they are broken just make a jumper across the bad spot. If you get a "solder bridge" (unintentional short) you can cut it with an exacto knife. Check over your board with a magnefying glass, even a tiny short will cause problems. Your mechanical construction looks very nice. Just don't wake the baby with the dremel

Steve

[emtffkev]

Ok, It has been a long time since I updated. I had to put the project on hold for a little while because of school.

Machine is built, motor's are mounted, I have the controller board built. It won't do anything...

When testing the card and motors I can get the motors to lock up when I turn on the power to the card and motor. When I do the same with it hooked to the computer I can't get Mach 3 to make the motor spin...Not sure what the problem is...I'm looking for any suggestions that you may have. Things to troubleshoot..anything...

[emtffkev]

Anyone around able to help me troubleshoot this? I don't have any friends locally or other resources to help with this and I am all out of ideas. Any info would be really appreciated. I just can't seem to figure out what is going wrong with this thing.