Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Basic CNC set up on Sherline Mill

First of all. If you plan on using Gecko 201 drivers, you are NOT going to be able to use anything under 24 Vdc. So your PC power supply is out.
Second, no DONT try to connect your Gecko's together unless you have a desire to watch the magic smoke that makes them work, escape!
And ,yes, you have to connect the drivers to a controller source. In this case ,your PC parallel port. To do this, its going to require you to buy a "breakout board" and a RS232 serial cable w/2 DB25 male connectors to interface with your port and to isolate the drivers from the PC.(And it makes it hell of alot easier to connect them all together) Camtronics makes a nice breakout board for around 30 bucks.A more advanced one that I know of is made by a company called Axxius. Costs around 60 bucks but well worth it. I highly recommend it.
As far as what type and torque rating of steppers you need.That all depends on your machine. Some specs would help to determine that.
2 phase steppers,or bipolar , have two sets of coils excited at the same time. Which creates much more torque per step and they tend to be more accurate. They also require more current to drive them compared to a unipolar stepper motor.
this is all of the advice I can give you without knowing what you are trying to convert.
I would like to add, that being that you have no experience with this sort of thing,I would recommend getting a small complete package that includes everything to get you up and going relitively easy, until you get the hang of CNC. Stepperworld.com,has a few pretty decent starter kits for the novice.And after you get the hang of it, you can go about peicing a system together for building.
There are many more. Just do a search on Google for stepper driver packages.
Good luck

Regards,
Jim

builder4wd <builder4wd@...> wrote:I'm looking at getting Gecko G201 stepper drivers. I will need 3, one
for each axis. Do I need to connect them together? These interface
with the computer through the parallel port, correct? I will also
need to get stepper motors, 1.8 degree, around 150 oz*in torque,
correct? What does "2-phase" mean? And how many leads would work? 6,
8? Are there any other specifications regarding these motors that I
should look at? Also, I will need a power supply for this, would a
250 watt PC supply work? I can get the 5v and 12v power from it. I've
read people using higher voltage power supplies. Will this be
necessary?

Sorry if these questions are too basic. This will give me a good idea
of what I need, and I would really appreciate any info. Thanks.


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