Stepper Motors from old Laser Printers

Hi

I have access to many parts from old Laser Printers with Scanners and would like to build a DIY 3D Printer.
The mechanical part is clear and easy but I need help with the Stepper Motors.

I have two different:

1st
MINEBEA
Type 17PM-K018-G22ST

17 -Motor Size
P -Type of Motor (42mm)
M -Step Angle (1.8 deg)
K -Type of Laminated Stator (2 Phase Hybrid (Low Noise, Low Vibration)
0 -Motor Length at Right (34mm)
18 -Electrical Variation

2nd
SHINANO KENSHI STP-42D204-01
3.15 V
0.7 Amp
4.5 Ohms/phase
1.8 deg/step

Those are all the information I could find, both have four cables.
Does anyone have deeper knowledge and can tell me if they can be made working with a RAMPs or other Controlboard?

I found the datasheet for the first motor here [cnc25.free.fr]. It says they are rated at 3V 1.2A per phase. That makes them a reasonable match for the drivers used in most 3D printer electronics. The torque is a little on the low side, so you may have to accept lower acceleration than usual. Don't use them in direct extruder designs, use a geared design instead.

The second one is less ideal because it has a lower rated current and higher phase resistance (and presumably inductance), nevertheless it should still be OK, especially when used with 24V electronics. I didn't find any torque data for 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].

Thanks, any suggestions on the wirering? It has a 6pin connector but only four have been used with the original cables.
Concerning 24Volt electronics, what might be an option? I only have worked on the Ramps/Arduino Mega.

Quote
nike357
Thanks, any suggestions on the wirering? It has a 6pin connector but only four have been used with the original cables.

Use those four connections. To work out which pairs of wires are a phase, short two of them together. If that makes rthe spindle harder to turn, that pair of wires are one phase and the other pair is the other phase.

Quote
nike357
Concerning 24Volt electronics, what might be an option? I only have worked on the Ramps/Arduino Mega.

I suggest Duet, Smoothieboard, or one of the Smoothie clones. These are all 32-bit boards. There are a few 8-bit boards that are 24V-capable too, but I don't think they cost any less than 32-bit boards.

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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].

My Sintron Prusa i3 came with 0.4A steppers and they were good enough for print speed up to 80mm/s. The frames instability was the bottleneck for higher speeds there.
My first delta printer ran with the same steppers and it wasn't bad either .The Ramps/Mega combo was the bottleneck here.
Both ran on 12V.

I would give your 0.7A steppers a try.
You can only appreciate improvements when you start with low spec equipment.
-Olaf

Thank you very much, i'll try to use the Shinano Motors for low Torque Axis and the Minebea for High Torque.

I am thinking of going for a SmartrapCore (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:651117) because the design is easy but I won't be using the complicated belt system, instead i'll be going for a standard x-axis and y-axis system (like the basic Darwin) because I'll take the belt from old Scanner Units together with the rods and wheels.

I'll be opening a built thread when I have all the parts.

Hi Guys,

I finally found time to wire the board and came across an issue with the Minebea Type 17PM-K018-G22ST.
I think it's wired up correctly but when giving the command to turn it rotates very roughly but correctly in one directions and makes a whining noise. The noise stops when I disable the steppers on the LCD Menu. The rough movement however has a pretty high torque.
I am using a Ramps v1.4 board with A4988 (max 2A per Phase).
I tried running with Jumpers set to Full Steps and 1/16Microsteps and this didn't change the behaviour.

Do you think i need to set the Voltage higher on the A4988s?

Tomorrow I'll try the SHINANO KENSHI STP-42D204-01 Motors to see if they behave different.

Greetings
Nike

The whining indicates you are using too much current already.

Some Ramps boards have bridges underneath the microstepping jumpers. They are set to 1/16 unless you cut the traces or be brave and burn them away by shortcutting the pins with a powerful powersupply. I burnt my traces with a small 3.7V LiPo battery.

Hi do you mean that below the jumpers are soldering bridges or do you mean on the bottom side of the board?
Concerning the whining, to me it looks more like the motor is stopped between two full steps as the whining is only present on certain axis positions.

I correctly identified the two phases by shortening two of them. I also used two identical motors and connected the same cables together, then when I turn one by hand slowly, the other turns as well. But when i turn one two fast the other starts to show similar symptoms as when driven by the Ramps Board.

okay guys, now it's getting really strange, i just flashed my Arduino with this test firmware [reprap.org]
and this is moving the motors perfectly fine...

any idea why they won't move correctly with Marlin?
I'll attach my config.h maybe this helps.

try reducing feed rate and acceleration

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {80,80,4000,500} // default steps per unit for Ultimaker
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE {300, 300, 5, 25} // (mm/sec)
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION {3000,3000,100,10000}

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P3steel DXL, with Due/RADDS/Raps128 dual Wade's extruder

Thanks amigob,

looks like that puts me on the right way
i've now set those values and the motor starts to rotate as it should be

#define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {80,80,4000,500}
#define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE {100, 100, 5, 25}
#define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION {500,500,100,2500}

#define DEFAULT_ACCELERATION 500
#define DEFAULT_RETRACT_ACCELERATION 500
#define DEFAULT_TRAVEL_ACCELERATION 500

at first attempt it's rotating extremely fast with this settings, like going from 0 to 40cm in under 2seconds and produces extreme torque...

then i put back in the jumpers for Microsteps and that's it!!!
Problem solved, motor runs smoothly. Now I can solder all remaining motor cables, assemble everything and tweak the Steps per mm.

Thank you very much for your help!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2016 03:01PM by nike357.

good to hear,

if you don't have enough 17PM-K018-G22ST and go for a prusa printer
then the SHINANO stepper is enough for the wade's extruder the 1 in 5 reduction makes that
more then strong enough.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2016 05:08AM by amigob.

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P3steel DXL, with Due/RADDS/Raps128 dual Wade's extruder

Thanks, I'll have more than enough 17PM-K018-G22ST (50% more than I can use myself), thought of selling the remaining on e-bay.
In fact it currently looks like I'll be going for 2 Prusa printers one i3Steel V4 and the second to max out the smooth rod length.
I thought about a core XY Design but then I'd have to buy belts as those scavanged are only long enough to cover the smooth rod length.