How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?
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Hi all,
I wish to use 4 stepper motors for my Z drive as my bed is quite large (420x420mm) and I am having some issues with driving the Z axis. This does not involve bed levelling, I will do that manually.
I am confused about how to wire the steppers. I currently have 2 motors running from the dual Z connectors. Can I simply wire 2 motors into each connector or should I use E1 to drive the second pair of steppers?
I have looked at some stepper wiring diagrams and am now more confused than ever!
Any advice and guidance would be very welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Diesel1. -
@diesel1 ideally, you want a driver per motor.
if thats not possible, unless they are all held and are unable to move, you will have to keep manually levelling them between each power cycle -
@diesel1 For info, I too have a 400x400 bed which is 12mm thick aluminium tooling plate plus 12mm of insulation plus 6mm of glass. I drive this with a single Nema 17 via 3 screws and a continuous belt. So mechanically, it's possible to lift that bed without resorting to using 4 motors. Just saying.......
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@deckingman said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@diesel1 For info, I too have a 400x400 bed which is 12mm thick aluminium tooling plate plus 12mm of insulation plus 6mm of glass. I drive this with a single Nema 17 via 3 screws and a continuous belt. So mechanically, it's possible to lift that bed without resorting to using 4 motors. Just saying.......
I was thinking of driving 4 screws with the 2 motors using belts. Can you give some more information on your drive-train please?
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@diesel1 said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@deckingman said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@diesel1 For info, I too have a 400x400 bed which is 12mm thick aluminium tooling plate plus 12mm of insulation plus 6mm of glass. I drive this with a single Nema 17 via 3 screws and a continuous belt. So mechanically, it's possible to lift that bed without resorting to using 4 motors. Just saying.......
I was thinking of driving 4 screws with the 2 motors using belts. Can you give some more information on your drive-train please?
Well there isn't much else to say. The motor is (IIRC) about 59Ncm torque, rated at 2 Amps so I run it at 1.6 Amps. The 3 screws are single start, 2mm lead. If you have those God awful 4 start screws with 8mm lead, then you'd struggle because you'd need 4 times as much torque and the steep helix angle would mean that you'd likely get auto-rotation resulting in the bed dropping under it's own weight when power is removed from the motors.
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@diesel1 said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@deckingman said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@diesel1 For info, I too have a 400x400 bed which is 12mm thick aluminium tooling plate plus 12mm of insulation plus 6mm of glass. I drive this with a single Nema 17 via 3 screws and a continuous belt. So mechanically, it's possible to lift that bed without resorting to using 4 motors. Just saying.......
I was thinking of driving 4 screws with the 2 motors using belts. Can you give some more information on your drive-train please?
You can read more informationion about Ian's bed setup at https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/z-axis-aluminium-upgrade/
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@dougal1957 said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
You can read more informationion about Ian's bed setup at https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/z-axis-aluminium-upgrade/
Streuth! - I'd forgotten that I wrote that Doug.
I guess while we are at it, I could point the OP to a YouTube video I did all about lead screws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_0xdrKUYVU&t=7s -
Thanks for all the pointers. I will take a look!
Diesel1.
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@deckingman said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
@dougal1957 said in How do I wire 4 Z stepper motors?:
You can read more informationion about Ian's bed setup at https://somei3deas.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/z-axis-aluminium-upgrade/
Streuth! - I'd forgotten that I wrote that Doug.
I guess while we are at it, I could point the OP to a YouTube video I did all about lead screws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_0xdrKUYVU&t=7sI was just looking for the opening PIC tbh but then thought why not link to the whole episode lol.
