Stepper controller to manually input a specific degree

[Jonathan]

How are you coupling the stepper motor to the spindle? If it's just with a belt then forget it. The torsional stiffness of even an unreasonably large stepper motor, combined with the stiffness of the belt means you'd probably be able to cut foam with it but not much else.

You need something like a worm drive or harmonic drive. Worm drives are good here since although they have a bit of backlash, this can be minimal and they generally don't backdrive. You can make one easily by attaching a stepper motor to a rotary table. This post shows one I made recently. It's just two simple parts you can easily make if you've got a lathe. Or you could buy one from Arc Euro.

[m_c]

DivisionMaster - Model Engineers Digital Workshop

I'm sure I've seen mention of other cheaper options, however I've not really paid that much attention to them. A search of homeshopmachinist might turn something up (bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/forum.php)

[johnsattuk]

Have a look at this, I built one works well

World of Ward :: Overview

[Web Goblin]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Johnsattuk thats exactly what I was looking for. Looks like I will be busy at my bench when I get back to work later next week.
Many thanks.

Ian

[Jonathan]

There's been threads about it before. The option m_c has posted looks good, but it is rather expensive for what it is.

Other options:
http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/electr...ndexing-3.html

EDIT: Sorry, didn't spot that that had already been linked to.

If you need someone to program the PIC pm me and I'll do it for you. Could probably write the code for my own with a display in about an hour... it's very simple.

Personally I just plug it into the controller for CNC router/mill and use the method hank describes. I don't really see much point in using the above methods when you can just use a computer you found in the skip, connect the parallel port a cheap stepper driver and run it on mach3 / linuxcnc. You don't even need a breakout board if you use an opto isolated driver (e.g. m542) and the parallel port is old enough to output 5V.

[m_c]

I don't really see much point in using the above methods when you can just use a computer you found in the skip, connect the parallel port a cheap stepper driver and run it on mach3 / linuxcnc. You don't even need a breakout board if you use an opto isolated driver (e.g. m542) and the parallel port is old enough to output 5V.

Convenience. With a standalone controller, you just need to plug it in and go, with none of the faff involved with setting up a computer. Then when you're finished, you can unplug it, put it back on the shelf/in the drawer and forget about it.

[Jonathan]

Convenience. With a standalone controller, you just need to plug it in and go, with none of the faff involved with setting up a computer. Then when you're finished, you can unplug it, put it back on the shelf/in the drawer and forget about it.

Yeah obviously it's more convenient, and if it's cheap then fair enough... but spending upwards of £192 on the DivisionMaster for convenience is the wrong priority in my opinion.