NEMA 23 6 wire Unipolar with Gen 6 electronics?

Firstly apologies, I've poured though many posts and the wiki and still am a bit uncertain about this so apologies for posting if it has been answered elsewhere numerous times!

I have some NEMA 23 Steppers (two Rotalink M234118C632, link to datasheet below ) - 12v, 0.38A, 38ohm phase resistance, plenty torque at rated current 0.38Nm - but I am wondering how these will fair out with the Gen 6 board ? They are described as unipolar - I presume the wiring is "just ignore the centre taps"...? Will Gen 6 drive at 12v and push through the 0.38A....? I am going to use these for X and Y drives on a Mendel/RepStrap...

I also have a RS 191-8328 ( link to datasheet below ) which is an 8-wire NEMA 23 rated at 5v, 1A, 5ohm, and 0.26Nm torque - again how will the Gen 6 electronics find this? will probably use as Z drive or extruder drive...

What are your overall thoughts on the performance of these, particularly the unipolar Rotalinks...?

So two very different NEMA 23's with significantly different coil ratings....

Many thanks :-)

[www.rotalink.com]

[radionics.rs-online.com]

Answering my own post perhaps...!

[forums.reprap.org]
[forums.reprap.org]

...other opinions welcome! :-))

The Rotalink M234118C632 steppers will work fine (see caveat below), assuming they're not five-wire steppers. If they're six-wire as you've implied, then yes, you just ignore the center taps. Cap them off to make sure they don't touch anything though!

They are 12V steppers, which makes them less than ideal. You may want to take the time to figure out how to drive them with a higher voltage, as you'll get much higher high-speed torque and a higher max. speed as well if you do. Most of the steppers used with the reprap are 1.5V or 3V steppers, and we just over-voltage them with a current-limiting (chopper-type) driver to prevent overheating. This isn't a requirement, and driving at 12V will work well enough. It's just that you'd get higher speeds with a higher voltage, without actually running the steppers any harder. Especially as these are over-torqued for this application, the maximum step speed will be the limiting factor on printing speed.

These are all NEMA 23 steppers - I believe the mendel plans call for NEMA 17, which are smaller-framed motors. Notice that all your steppers are very high torque (0.26Nm and 0.38Nm) while the mendel only calls for 0.137Nm. I don't know if they will physically fit. At the very least you'll have to have re-designed motor mounts. This redesign work has probably already been done, but I've not heard anything.

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