Driving larger stepper motors

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pogcarrOld
 
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Driving larger stepper motors

Post by pogcarrOld »

I have just recently built one of your Motor Shield kits and have been happily driving a couple of the stepper motors that I bought from your site with it. Fun stuff!
Now, however, it is time to put all this to serious purpose and I find that I may have a problem. The actuator I want to drive uses a fairly large NEMA 17 stepper motor. I think the specs are 24V and 2.5A peak. Is there a way to modify your cute little motor shield board to handle this, or am I better of just walking away from this base module. If there is a higher power replacement for the L293D that would be a most welcome mod to know of.
Any insights you can offer those of us who want/need to drive larger stuff than the Motor Shield is usually rated for?

adafruit
 
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Re: Driving larger stepper motors

Post by adafruit »

those are much too powerful for our little driver. to be honest we do not know of any modules that can drive something that big

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Driving larger stepper motors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You are getting into some serious current and need a serious stepper controller. Currently I am designing a set of these into a CNC project I am working on.

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pogcarrOld
 
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Re: Driving larger stepper motors

Post by pogcarrOld »

Hmmm... good advice on the Gecko's. I had heard of those years ago and had completely forgotten them.
Do you know if anyone has written some code to drive them from an Arduino? Being a lazy son of a gun I like to take advantage of any work someone else has already done.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Driving larger stepper motors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The AccelStepper library supports drivers with a Step and Direction interface such as the Geckos.

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