Hi, firstly thanks to those who kindly replied to my earlier question regarding stepper choices..I have eliminated the option of reusing my MPCNC electronics. Now I have a couple of choices: 1. Arduino with CNC shield to use with external drivers (I have some of these from an earlier purchase when I was thinking about CNC ing my BF20LV manual mill - Digital Stepper Driver 1.8~5.6A 20-50VDC for Nema 23, 24, 34 Stepper Motor ) I would only have to buy one more of them - already have a 36v power supply. 2. A Blackbox Option 2 is simpler to set up, seems to be pretty much plug and play, but option 1 gives me maximum flexibility and the ability to replace drivers if I burn one out - don't ask me why I think this is important, and is also cheaper since I have most of it already. So simple vs flexible? Recommendations? TIA Gary
I am a fan of the BlackBox, but if your funding is tight I would think your easiest and cheapest solution would be to buy one more of the type you have unless you have another project you can use them in. Hooking an arduino to stepper drivers is not very hard. You do not even need the shield. Kyo gave some great information here: C-Beam cnc And here: DQ542MA Wiring Methods
BlackBox has onboard TVS protection diodes at the motor outputs. I don't know of any BlackBox drivers that a user here has managed to destroy (yet, touch wood!) That said, still try and avoid the two bad things: - Don't move motors by hand - they turn into generators - Don't unplug while powered up - collapsing magnetic field folds back onto the coils and generates a tonne of back-EMF
