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

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Jon Elson <elson@p...> wrote:

> 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

Hi Jon,
Thanks a lot for your input. This is very helpful.
The Api drives do have a setting that allows me to set them for 4
amps/ phase ( max. 8 Amps/phase with additional cooling.
So my larger motors should work.

Each drive has it's own RS232 output plug , but I don't know if
I can simply add 3 RS232 ports to the computer and still have my
software (master5) work with them as each drive would be on a
seperate port... Thats why I was thinking about a breakout box of
somesort that I could attach all 3 RS232 connections to... then
output from the breakout box to the single port on the computer
and be able to comunicate through 1 port instead of 3 which may or
may not work with the software.

So, finding a breakou box that will work is what I may be looking for
or simply adding more ports to the computer.

Thanks for your help.
Daniel