Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: 4 phase driver, 2 phase motors. can this be wired to work?

racingjewels wrote:

> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Jon Elson <elson@p...> wrote:
> > racingjewels wrote:
> >
> > > Hi
> > > I just received (3) older API 325 linear microstepping drives
> > > and found out that the small motors connected to the drives are
> > > 4 phase motors.
> > > I have new larger motors that are 8 wire , 2 phase ... is there a
> way
> > > to wire them into these drivers or do I need to buy different
> motors
> > > to be able to use these drives?
> >
> > There really isn't a 4-phase motor. How many wires do you have on
> > these "4 phase" motors? Generally, 4, 6 and 8 wire motors are all
> > 2-phase, with different ways to connect to the coils. How many
> motor
> > connections are there on the drive?
> >
> > Jon
> Hi Jon,
> The original motors are nema 23 230 oz motors 4.7 volts, 1.8 amps
> model # m 232-04 Viewable at
> http://www.apicontrols.com/newapi/products/m23step.html
> Pretty powerful for an older nema 23
> It does say the motors are " encoder ready"...
> There are 9 wires coming out of the motor wired to a 7 pin plug
> that plugs into the driver.

Yes, from the data sheet, these are clearly 2-phase, 8 wire motors,
apparently the extra must be a ground wire. They show, on the page
mentioned, wiring connections for "series" and "parallel" connections.
If your drivers can handle 3.4 A per phase, you should use the parallel
connection. You only need to bring out

> The API P 325 controller is no longer listed on the website, but I
> got them to fax me a copy of the literature they had and it claims to
> be a 4 phase ,unipolar,linear fet drive . The motors above are the
> original motors.

Yes, I can see why they no longer make this, it is hopelessly obsolete.
It is NOT truly 4-phase, although this erroneous nomenclature was
used for years with unipolar drives.

> I'm trying to replace these motors with my larger nema 34 motors
> that are 8 wire, 3.6v , 4amp/ phase in unipolar config... However,
> after having found out just how powerful the original motors are,
> I'm considering putting them on my other machine...But being able to
> switch the drives to the bigger motors could be very useful.

But, these drives were not MADE for biiger motors, I suspect. You can't
go from 1.7 A to 4A by just plugging in the bigger motors. If the drives
have provisions for setting the current up to 4 A, then it should work,
but if they were made specifically for the 1.7 A motor, it won't work well
at all, or may destroy the drives.

> The last thing I would need to do is find a controller board that
> I can plug into the computer so that I can attach the 3 drives and
> control them from my software... Any Ideas where I can get one?
> these API drives have their own built in powersupplies

If the drives take step and direction signals, you can just hook them to
the parallel port of a PC. No interface needed.

Jon