2 steppers hooked on 1 driver?

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  • May 17, 2011 at 3:04 pm #1783
    thibalte
    Member

    Hi,

    I might use 2 steppers to drive the Y mechanisms, to move each side like the micRo CNC does (I’m basically building a replica of the micRo as it is the simplest construction i’ve seen), I have a pair of steppers salvaged from a previous XY table project, they draw like 0.5A per winding, is it fine if I hook both steppers in parallel on the same connector of the shield? or should I drive each channels with its own driver?

    May 19, 2011 at 8:12 am #1784
    alden
    Member

    I think you are better off driving them with separate drivers. You could try wiring the motors in parallel, but I’d be concerned about what that does to the driver. They are not designed to work this way.

    May 19, 2011 at 11:10 am #1785
    thibalte
    Member

    ok, I’m not sure how it’s gonna react, but from my internet-findings it should work and behave to the driver like a regular stepper with a doubled current draw, but i’m staying well under the max 2.5A rating, sooo it should be fine. i’m gonna test this and keep you updated about it.

    May 21, 2011 at 7:11 am #1786
    alden
    Member

    Thanks. I’ve never done this and am curious about your results. One possibility is that since a stepper driver is just a kind of power amp, and you can parallel speakers to an audio amp, you should be able to do the same. OTOH, a lot of what the stepper driver does is damp back-EMF through various clever decay schemes, and if doubling up on the motors complicates the back-EMF waveform these schemes may not work. I’m curious as to your results. How good are you at soldering fine-pitch surface mount 🙂

    May 22, 2011 at 1:25 pm #1787
    thibalte
    Member

    Hi there!

    So i tested out the shield with 2 stepper motors wired in parallel hooked on one driver, and it works flawlessly with the 2 motors stepping exactly the same back and forth.

    They draw 0.33A per winding so since it doubles the current its still pretty low, I have no idea how it would react with larger motors and i wouldnt really advice it.

    One thing i dont know yet is how would it react if the effort put on the shaft is different between the 2 motors, I will have a look at this when the setup is finished.

    A video of the thing working is available here.

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