Stepper driver help

I recently purchased a power z table for my laser engraver. It comes with the stepper motor but no driver or anything to operate the motor. I am looking for the least expensive functional way to be able to raise and lower the bed. The motor is a 4 wire bipolar I believe. This is completely new territory for me so any help would be greatly appreciated I have done hours of research but I am still lost. thank you for your assistance and I look forward to learning this new material.

Read the part number off the stepper motor and search for its data on the web, in particular its rated current, resistance and inductance per phase. Post the values here, then we will be able to advise you.

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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].

Here is the information that I was able to gather. I hope this is sufficient. I took the motor off and looked over the entire thing and there was no part numbers. I had to go to the website to find it. dodged a bullet there I would be screwed not knowing anything about this and dealing with a part with no identifying markings.

Model Number- 42HS02
Phase Current (Amps)- 0.4
Phase Resistance (Ohm)- 12.5±10%
Phase Inductance (mH)- 21±20%

Such a small stepper can easily be controlled by our common pololu / stepstick drivers. (A988 or DRV8825 are common )
All you'd need is an arduino nano on a breadboard, a driver,a potmeter or encoder and an endstop to manually control the height.

If you want the height to be controlled automatically by your machines controller, you'd need access to it's firmware.
-Olaf

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2015 03:47AM by o_lampe.

As Olaf says, you can use a standard low cost driver with that motor. Be sure to adjust the current on the driver to be below the 0.4A rating of your motor. A 12V power supply should be sufficient and can power the Arduino as well. For more help, I suggest you ask here [forum.arduino.cc].

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2015 05:26AM by dc42.

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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].

Okay so if I understand correctly will these parts be sufficient? I am unsure what the potentiometer or the end stop is for. I was hoping to just have a momentary switch for clockwise and another for counter clockwise rotation.

[www.robotshop.com]
[www.robotshop.com]
[www.robotshop.com]

The stepper driver looks OK. You need a 12V supply for the stepper motor driver, not a 5V one. The Pro Mini version of the Arduino isn't the best choice for you because it doesn't include the USB port for programming or the 5V regulator (so that you can run the whole thing from the 12V PSU). So I suggest:

Arduino Leonardo or Uno
Stepper driver - the one you already linked to
12V 1A or 2A power supply

You can use up/down push buttons. Depending on the mechanics, you may not need end stop switches, if you adjust the motor current so that the torque is low enough not to cause damage when the table reaches its upper and lower mechanical limits.

Two warnings:

1. Set the current using the potentiometer on the stepper driver board before you connect the motor for the first time. To do this you will need a multimeter, to measure the voltage on the potentiometer.

2. Never connect or disconnect the motor to the stepper driver with power connected.

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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].

Thank you very much dc42. Is this a good place to purchase the products from or would you recommend a different source?

I entirely agree with dc42 that the Arduino Pro Mini is not the best choice, but it actually does have the 5V regulator onboard. So that it's possible to run it from 12V - it's the pin labeled "RAW". Here a link to the schematics for those interested.

Quote
enif
I entirely agree with dc42 that the Arduino Pro Mini is not the best choice, but it actually does have the 5V regulator onboard. So that it's possible to run it from 12V - it's the pin labeled "RAW". Here a link to the schematics for those interested.

Thanks for the correction. I didn't spot a 5V regulator in the picture of the pro Mini, but on closer inspection I see there is an SOT23-5 chip so I guess that's it.

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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].

Quote
Jlavape
Thank you very much dc42. Is this a good place to purchase the products from or would you recommend a different source?

I live in the UK, so I can't comment on suppliers in the US.

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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].

If you want to do it without arduino and programming at all, you'd need a "multivibrator chip" like NE555 to endlessly produce step signals.
Then add a switch to set the drivers dir pin HIGH or LOW and a pushbutton to activate the enable pin.

I love simple stuff
-Olaf

I like that idea very much Olaf. I do not have much experience in this field and simple is good. I already ordered an Arduino but since this project is time sensitive I will likely save that for a future project that I have more time on. I have never programmed anything more than a simple electronic I will have my work cut out for me. I really appreciate all your help in this. I ordered the pololu driver and a 12v 2a power supply I will order the NE555 to use in place of the arduino.

I recommend you stick with the Arduino. It's very easy to learn to program, far more flexible than hardware alone, and you can change the behaviour easily by reprogramming it.

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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].

dc42 is right, arduino will bring you home easier, but it's kind of overkill.


-Olaf