Stepper Drivers, Motors, and Power

Here are the electronics that you will need to make the CNC Router move! I am offering a bundle of components including three stepper motors, three stepper motor drivers, a power supply, breakout board and a fan to keep everything in normal operating temperatures. This equipment will have the power for the CNC router kit that I offer on the main sales page. This system will also enable many other CNC retrofits. Later, I will also include a video tutorial on how to wire the whole thing together, but in the meantime, there is a wiring diagram. All of these components are sold as a package for $450 USD.

One of the most important components included is the breakout board. This little gem allows you to interface your computer, using the parallel port, with the three stepper drivers. Equiped with all of the wire connectors, integraged circuits for interfacing and signal processing, and resistors to protect your computer from any damage, this will keep you CNCing without a hitch. You can also get this component from CNC4PC.com, or buy it here as a part of the larger combo.

These are the all important drivers that will translate the signals to what the stepper motors will understand, and amplify the translated signals to turn the motors. As you can see, there are loads of information silk screened on to the case for easy wiring. That funny looking stiped metal piece is for heat dissipation, since these driver chips can get hot. Specifically, these drivers will be able to accept 24 to 40 volts with current up to 3 amps. Think of amps as the muscle and volts as how fast the muscle can be brought into the motors. These also enable microstepping at half, quarter, fifth, eight, tenth, 1/25, 1/32, 1/50, 1/64, 1/100, 1/128, 1/200 and 1/256 (whew, that was tiring). It even has protection circuitry within for overheating, over voltage and over current. there are dip switches for easy current switching and this driver will accept 4, 6 or 8 lead motors. Oh yeah, the most important thing, this puppy has idle current reduction.

Now we get to the muscle of the linear motion. If you couldnt already tell, these are the motors that provide the linear motion. When the driver sends a combination of current to the coils of the motors, it will turn 1.8 degrees, or tighter depending on the microstep setting on the drivers. That is, if you have half step, then the shaft will turn 9 degrees, quarter step and .45 degrees, and so on and so on... These are NEMA 23 motors (standards terminology which only refers to

its faceplate specifications and measurements), but don't let the size fool you, these motors can hold at 382 oz-in torque. The shafts are 3/8" in diameter to fit 3/8" couplings. The current rating is 2.8 amps and 4.17 volts, so you will need a power supply that can be drawn at 8.4 amps, which is a nice segway to the power supply.

The need of this system will require a somewhat beefy power supply. This one puts out a nice 36 volt and is rated at 8.8 amps. This is a bit more than you will need for this setup. Other components that you see in the top picture are a fan and a adapter plug which are included. Don't forget to hook up that fan.