How to turn useless extruder driver to second axis motor?

Hello guys.
I want 2 motors on Z axis but also want to wire each motor to different driver. I am looking forward on blending print head like The Diamond Hotend so I need 3 extruders.
Currently I found Azteeg X3 Pro controller that have 8 stepper motor drivers, so it's much for my needs.
How to turn useless extruder driver to second axis motor?
Thank you in advance.

I don't know of a board that supports exactly 7 stepper motor drivers. Have you considered wiring your two Z axis motors in series instead? This is often a better option than connecting them in parallel.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

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dc42
I don't know of a board that supports exactly 7 stepper motor drivers. Have you considered wiring your two Z axis motors in series instead? This is often a better option than connecting them in parallel.

No, no, driver designed for 1 step.motor. In cnc milling/turning machines never 1 driver feeds 2 steppers or servos simultaneously.

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slonik

Quote
dc42
I don't know of a board that supports exactly 7 stepper motor drivers. Have you considered wiring your two Z axis motors in series instead? This is often a better option than connecting them in parallel.

No, no, driver designed for 1 step.motor. In cnc milling/turning machines never 1 driver feeds 2 steppers or servos simultaneously.

You have to edit the firmware to send the Z step/dir to one of the other drivers. Not necessary though because the Z on cartesian PRINTERS is barely used and requires little power compared to XY

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Please add your printer design to [reprap.org]

I believe most firmwares have an option for "axis cloning," so that signals for one driver will be sent to two of them. Sounds like that's what you're looking for.

If the drivers could handle the current from two identical motors in parallel I see no reason at all why it wouldn't work. In fact unless one lost a full step they would likely stay in perfect synch. I've had DC drives running three motors in parallel for at least 20 years on machines I have built. The drive is simply rated for the total current needed for three motors. I've also done motors in series, to create an electronic differential. When one motor slows down on the inside of a turn the voltage increases on the other side speeding it up.