MicroStep and Motor driver setup questions - <???OLD Qs NEW MACHINE???>

[rognets]

I am sure these questions have been asked and answered many times in this forum, but I cn't find the answer I am looking for.

New home built 3 axis machine I have it up and running and have spent many weeks tuning and cutting. I have two questions.

1   What are some general guidelines for adjusting the driver current output. Using a 36v supply, 7A drivers on 3v 5A stepper
     ( how do i set the current adjustment, do you load the motors? )

2   Micro stepping - Which one should I use? The drivers I am using have 1, 2, 4, 16 micro-steps.
     ( curently setup with 16th steps and runs smoothly but maybe lacks power/ torque )

Any general comments greatly appreciated


Rognets

[Hood]

 The current you set the drives to is determined by your motors, they will have a current rating, usually current per phase. Your drives may have dip switches or need a resistor but for your motors it would seem you need to set the drives to 5Amps but that may depend how you have them wired. I am not up on stepper wiring, been a long time but lots of good info on Geckos site, well worth a look.

Microstepping should not really affect the torque, current affects that and volts affects speed. As to what microstepping would be best then according to Gecko they say any more than 10x is kind of wasted for CNC machines, it wont really harm but wont have any benefit, if they are running fine at 16x and you can get the velocity at that resolution just stick with it.
Hood

[danieldst]

HI, I´M new in this forum, well, i built my own cnc 3 axis, in this moment a try to tuning motors....

The Drivers i am using don't have microstepping, i use Kcam to move it and its works well(slowly but surely), but wen i try to move with Mach3...i can't tuning motors....... 

Can i avoid that mach3 use microsteps??, or What can i do to solve the problem??
thank you.....sorry for my poor English.

Daniel

[Hood]

Mach doesnt care whether your drives are microstepping or not, all Mach does it put out an amount of pulses to move the axis  the distance required.
What drives do you have? Do you have a link to documentation for the drives?

Some old drives may require a wide pulse width so it might be worth your while trying Sherline Mode.
Hood

[danieldst]

Thank you for your answer,

My friend, see this web page: http://www.cenece.com/cenececontrol.htm
I use some like it, see "CONEXIONES". but my supply, stepper motors are diferents (www.pickels.powerhostingusa.com/products/pdf/57BYGH405A.pdf), so, the motors currently move good with kcam....
I think that the frequency of shipment of the pulses is very high and for that reason lose great amount of steps.
the speed of the motor does not matter while itr does not get out of step..
Can i do to solve the problem?

Best for you.

[Hood]

Can you attach the xml of the Mach setup you have done please.
Hood

[danieldst]

Thanks Hood,
Sorry for my late reply...

I can solve the problem, your are right, well  i check Sherline 1/2 pulse mode and check dirlow Active and StepLowative....and finaly i can solve tuning motors , they move very good, slowly (16 ipm) but good.
Thank you very much.

Now, what can i do to move the motors fast?....like 50 imp, I increase the voltage of the source of the motors a 50% but this creates heat in the motors when they are lengthy.....another some other suggestion?

[Hood]

Are you able to get more speed with the other software?
Hood

[danieldst]

Thanks Hood,
No,i don't get  more speed with the other program.

[Hood]

It sounds like you are stuck at that speed then
 Older technology drives often have slow speeds where more modern ones can get the best out of steppers.
Hood