searching large stepper drives for NEMA23 motors

Hi,
I am new to this forum, but not new to 3D printing.
i've read and learnt a lot trough this and other forums

At my work we have an large 3D printer, which needs an overhaul due to malfunctioning and outdated components.
i've figured out most components, the only thing i can not get my head around are the stepper drives.

the machine is quite large (print space of 400x400x800), and uses NEMA23 motors, but the installed stepperdrives are not powerfull enough (A4988 on full power....).

does somebody know bigger stepper drives capable of driving NEMA23 ? i've googled a lot, but can not find a nice solution.... either some extreme DIY stuff, or older boards that are not available anymore (pibot or powerlolu).

motor: Leadshine nema 23 57hs09


thanks in advance
Mark

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2016 09:10AM by markhelifreak.

You can try something that is looking like this, might have some caveats but should work. If you want something faster and with more performance, look at one which says DSP (digital signal processing), but that will cost you extra, something like this one. Most of those are bipolar, and are driven by step/dir/enable, which is what you (probably) want.

From psu, wire the V+ and gnd directly to stepper drivers. And step/dir/enable can be wired directly from your development board (arduino?) to the step/dir/enable of the driver. Just read the pin definition file for the selected motherboard, which pins are stp/end/dir for each motor. This way you do not need a cnc breakout board of sorts, and it might be easier to debug.

I have nema23, they do not require high current as long as the application does not need force. Theoretically A4988 can drive those motors too. As the stepper driver limits the current from its potentiometer, using the drivers above with a potentiometer setting to give 1A would be about the same as using A4988 with 1A pot setting. It would be something like having a nema-17 motor instead, but one which runs much cooler to the touch. If you already have A4988 and you do not do things like milling, maybe you can make those work - its worth a shot.

If you connect those motors in bipolar series mode then the rated current is 2.1A. Any well-designed 3D printer controller board with on-board drivers (not plug-in drivers) and 24V power should be able to handle them, for example the Duet 0.8.5 and Duet WiFi.

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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].