1 axis tb6560 any good?

[lazzymonk]

Hi all

Has anyone tried one of the single axis tb6560 boards? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290664490692

I know there has been many problems with the 3 axis ones based on the same chip but have not seen anything about theses.

[boldford]

I've looked at then and was hoping someone here had tried them. The 3 axis ones seem to be a nightmare. For low current application I'm toying with trying http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/pololu...r-motor-driver or http://proto-pic.co.uk/big-easy-stepper-motor-driver/ with a possible addition of opto-isolation.

Any thoughts folks?

[bobc]

The Allegro driver boards are widely used with Reprap 3D printers, they seem to have a good rep. I think a few people burn them due to miswiring or inadequate heat sinking.

AFAICT the problems with TB6560 are related to requiring a relatively slow pulse rate, and with modern controllers that can create fast pulses, you get missed steps. The Allegro drivers work down to 1us pulses, which should be fast enough for anything you can throw at them!

It would be good to find a 3/4 axis board with Allegro drivers, might be cheaper than buying separate modules.

[boldford]

I'm inclined to prefer separate driver boards for each axis. If one does suffer a premature demise its far cheaper to change out the single module; moreover it may be easier to trouble-shoot by swapping modules around. Has anyone tried these http://www.quasarelectronics.com/315...tor-driver.htm 5 amps max makes them seem quite attractive; and a UK distributor.

[Jonathan]

Has anyone tried these http://www.quasarelectronics.com/315...tor-driver.htm 5 amps max makes them seem quite attractive; and a UK distributor.

If they did micro-stepping that wouldn't be too bad...if you're keen you could attach a PIC to it and program that to do microstepping (pretty easy to code), but by the time you've done that you might as well make the whole driver, especially since they've released the schematic. Athough that leaves a bit to be desired - back-emf diodes for instance!

For a few £ more though:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-Micro-...ht_7002wt_1270

You're unlikely to need more than 4.2A since most Nema 23/24 motors fall in that range when wired in bipolar parallel.

[boldford]

Hi all

Has anyone tried one of the single axis tb6560 boards? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290664490692

I know there has been many problems with the 3 axis ones based on the same chip but have not seen anything about theses.

Taking a step into the unknown and a gamble of £15.29 I've just ordered one of these.
When it arrives and I've had chance to play with it I'll report back here with my findings (for what they are worth).

[boldford]

Taking a step into the unknown and a gamble of £15.29 I've just ordered one of these.
When it arrives and I've had chance to play with it I'll report back here with my findings (for what they are worth).

It arrived today. So now to unpack it and check it out.

[John S]

I have 3 of these but not tried them yet.
They were bought for a very simple application so I'm hoping they will be OK.

Only problem I can see at the moment is they need 5V and return step and direction to the controller.
My application sends step and direction out at 5v and returns to ground.

Being a big hammer man as opposed to MiG welding IC's onto circuit boards i believe you can reverse this with pull up / down resistors ?

[irving2008]

I have 3 of these but not tried them yet.
They were bought for a very simple application so I'm hoping they will be OK.

Only problem I can see at the moment is they need 5V and return step and direction to the controller.
My application sends step and direction out at 5v and returns to ground.

Being a big hammer man as opposed to MiG welding IC's onto circuit boards i believe you can reverse this with pull up / down resistors ?

Sadly John, no you can't, you need something active to provide a pull down rather than a pull up. However all is not lost, is it possible for your application to invert the sense of the signal, i.e. be normally high and go low for the pulse? If not, you need a simple Inverter circuit. If you need something like that drop me a PM.

[John S]

Irving,
No idea about inverting the signal, the controller is an Arduino and a 3rd party has written the application.
It's not actually written in stone that I use this driver, may go onto the 542's when sorted.