RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Allegro UCN5804 stepper driver

>>I have about 10. How many do you need?

Dan Mauch
THANKS - Well, I'd like to get at least 3 or 4, probably. Maybe I should
tell you what I'm up to and then go from there.

I'm an engineer turned farmer - er a farmer with an old engineering degree
and I do a lot of volunteer work with our high school kids. We have built
120 lb competition robots the last 3 years for FIRST competitions. We are
not a very wealthy school district and our school shop has been neglected
for some time. We have a lathe that helped win WW II, anf hasn't done much
since, a mill/drill that I found for us and some welders - TIG, MIG, stick,
oh and a plasma cutter. None of these has even a DRO, let alone CNC
capability, and I am interested in getting into this century and bringing
the kids along. So, we have printers and computers to salvage, and I've
seen Bruce Shapiro's work eg - http://www.taomc.com/bits2bots/index.htm , as
well as Dave Benson's http://www.stepperstuff.com/ . Both of them use
5804's in very simple circuits to use salvaged steppers to make stuff move,
so I thought I'd start there.

I've also been able to get some plans for like 24 x 24 cnc router tables
donated, and I thought I'd work with the kids to build our own cnc router as
sort of a next step. Looking for stepper suggestions for this, btw.

I realize that I'm looking for "old technology" with the 5804's, but it
looked like a place to start.

I'm very open to suggestions, and would appreciate any guidance you might
want to give.

Thanks so much for the initial reply and thanks in advance for more..


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