Également disponible en Français
Également disponible en Français |
The Linistepper is a well
reviewed, PIC microcontroller
based, open source
controller / driver for
small to medium sized 5, 6 or
8 wire unipolar (not 4 wire bi-polar) stepper
motors featuring ultra smooth old school
linear microstepping combined with modern
active current regulation for faster response
from an onboard PIC microcontroller.
Standard step + direction inputs easily connect up to 7 units to a parallel port for for use with standard CNC programs like TurboCNC or Mach 3 or with USB connected motion controllers like Planet-CNC.com^ or uC's like the PIC or Arduino. A "4 Axis" option is available to provide cable breakout, adjustable mode select, logic power regulation, a relay driver, and a test pulse generation circuit. The connector is PMinMO.com^ standard^ for mix and match with other break out boards and drivers.
Supported modes include: Full, Half, High-Torque Half, as well as 6th, 18th and infinite, analog-linear microstepping! A low power hold mode is also available for CNC programs which provide the signal.
Linear drive reduces eddy current losses and heating in the motor typical of chopper type drivers so your motors run cool with no loss of power from the demagnitizing effect of heat! The heat is dissipated at the driver instead through a LARGE heat sink or a heat sink with a fan which you must supply (al/alloy with fins and perhaps even a small fan; not steel). Active current regulation combats the traditional slowness of older Linear designs, and the smooth stepping reduces ringing and missed steps giving you a faster top speed from the same old motors.
Unlike old style linear drivers or chopper drivers, the Linistepper doesn't always need a power supply that is 2 or 3 times the rated voltage of the motor. You can use a supply with 5 to 10 volts over the motors maximum, and our active current regulation will still give very good performance.
Professionally made PCBs and Kits are available; priced below the cost of purchasing the individual components, but the circuit, board layout, and firmware are all openly available. Many users have provided modifications, pictures, layouts, etc...
 Standard, Full Step |
 3 current levels, 1200 steps, without linear ramping. |
Now with onboard mode selection switches.
 9 current levels, 3600 steps, with linear ramping! |
For medium small, high inductance (lower amperage, higher voltage), unipolar motors, Linisteppers are the absolute best value.
Mariss Freimanis of geckdrive.com says: "A switching type drive makes sense when the power levels are large. The inefficiency of a linear drive becomes prohibitive at such levels. At 7A and 80V, a classic linear drive dissipates an unacceptable 560 Watts of heat in the power transistors.
At the other extreme, say 1A and 24V, the complexity of a switching type drive makes less sense. Heat dissipation then is a manageable 24 Watts and the simplicity and other advantages of a linear amplifier becomes appealing." ^
"Multiply any drive's rated current by its rated voltage. Divide that number by its price. Those numbers gives you the relative value of any drive; how much performance you get for the money you spend." ^ Although they are excellent drivers, purchasing a set of three Geko G250 ( 3.5A * 50VDC / $61 = 2.87 ) for $183 is still a waste of money if you are driving smaller motors. The Linistepper will cost you $90 for 3 axis plus your time assembling the kit and has a 2A * 35V / $30 = 2.33 "Mariss rating". Geko's are the best drivers in the industry for large bipolar motors at ultra high (>1000 rpm) speeds. If you are running anything up to a couple amps, the Linistepper and your soldering iron will give you close to the same performance (smooth, low resonance, best torque) at half the price with motors you pulled from a printer, fax or copier, or purchased used or on the cheap.
| $35 each | $90 for 3! | |||
| Postal Shipping (in the USA ONLY) |
1 or 2 units, US shipping 416015 |
~or~ | Set of 3, US shipping Just $90 for your 3 axis machine! |
We buy huge quantities: There is just no way anyone can purchase the individual parts to make a few of these kits for less than our kit price! |
| International Shipping (~$15 more) Just about anywhere in the world! |
Now Available: Linistepper Version 2! With PMinMO^ standard connections^ for mix and match with other break out boards and drivers, screw terminals for the motor leads, onboad mode selection, lower component count means less soldering, same great linear microstepping features.
Also available: Set of 3 Linistepper VERSION ONE Printed Circuit Boards for $35.00. These are VERY well made boards and are certainly worth the price IF you have a well stocked scrap box to populate them. However, you will find our kit price of $90 for 3 complete kits is MUCH LESS than the cost of parts and PCBs, AND the PIC comes already programmed! |
USA only! 416026 |
or | |
Can't be made for less! |
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Connect to your PC or stand alone:
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* This are electronics KITs, you need to solder them together.
BTW to all those newbies out there Linisteppers impressed me as a newbie but then they were starting to show their weakness - they were sloooow. At least I thought it's due to linisteppers. Well, I can report that with 24v and laserjet steppers these things are SCREAMING!!! I'm running them nicely at 20revs/sec (albeit 1 minute at a time, until I've sorted out my cooling problems) with my very rough machine that hasn't been executed too precisely or adjusted properly. Before at 12v the motors would stall at the slightest misalignment and 6revs/sec was all I could get out of them reliably. Once all that is ironed-out I'm thinking 30revs/sec (1.75mm lead) would be attainable....
[The Linisteppers] only deficiency, it seems, is the transistor heat. I have a chopper here and a linistepper and they both run at 24v. Linistepper "sounds" sweeter and it seems it runs faster as well before stalling. This is strange as I always thought a chopper would go faster and stall higher up in the rev range.
...
I don't know what I like better, burning my finger on the driver board or burning my finger on the motor. Which do you prefer? P.S. it seems that once I switched to a chopper driver all that heat that used to be on linisteppers just transferred to motors themselves!
...
[ed, at this point, we find out that there was NO heatsink on the linisteppers power transisters]
Since I burned my fingers on a motor that was driven by a chopper (and that motor was actually HOTTER than linisteppers driving other motors) I have decided to stick to linisteppers. It's easier to worry about heat in one place than 3 separate locations. Went down to my local PC shop and they'll have some 2nd hand pentium II coolers with fan in by monday....
Ok, I have re-assembled one of my linis, applied thermal paste, applied isolators to each, mounted the brackets and laid a 12v computer fan on the brackets blowing DOWN through the brackets and onto the lini. The lini transistors are now as cool as ice.
Suggestion: Make a note of the changed capacitor values in the printed instructions.
Request 1: Make a bipolar controller next! (3 or 4 wire) Please!
Request 2: Offer or specify "upgrade kit" with *specific* directions of what to change, for higher amp motors (for people like me who don't know what they're doing).
Compliment: Very professional looking. I'm sure I'll be pleased with the performance, when I finally finish one.
James
Newton replies: I'll do that. {done}
Bipolar controllers are inherently more expensive (4 times the power transistors)
and less attractive in a hobby market.
People who don't know what they are doing should learn but I've been thinking
I should try to write some sort of "expert system" to help that along. {done:
see Tuning for higher power} Thanks and best
of luck.
Hello,Received your kit today (saturdaymorning 9 Nov.) Thank you Verry Much!
Looks verry Proffesional made!
I do not have the time at the moment to build an test it and i don't have the alluminium heatsink at homei have placed the components on the board all fits well i think except C3 holes are 2,54mm wide and should be 5,08mm wide {Ed: Component changes caused that... The leads can be bent to fit for now}
also it would be better to place picture off the caps position on your kitassemble page people look better than they read or place caps + - on the silkscreen off the board {Ed: Done!}
maybe you could give some more info/pictures about the resistors and colors on your kit assemble page maybe a picture with lines outside the picture with describing text off resistors (colors) {Ed: Done!}
think this could help other people making mistakes placing components
verry nice kit
question where do you get this good quality pcb board made?? {Ed: GRIN!}
greetings luberth
netherlands
Roman Black - Aug 2002 This design is Hippyware Basically this is just a board I designed for my own use, that ended up as a kit. It is easy to build and is well suited for motors around 1A/phase. It can be re-configured to do larger motors with some resistor changes and a large enough heatsink. I like things rugged and simple, which it is. Yes it is linear and makes heat (like a big audio amp does). It has some unconventional features like hardware AND software microstepping, and current ramping to give almost "stepless" operation at the tuned speed. And it will suit industrial apps with continuous use etc, no "toy" stepper chips in this design. 3600 steps per revolution with a 200 step motor! My original design goal was to make a board that could be used for many different projects. If you choose you can modify this design to suit different tasks. Circuit operation is simple and easy to understand and test and PIC .asm source code is supplied. Full indexing, motion control etc on one circuit board is possible if you wish to reprogram it.Using the board! Tips for using the board and keeping it cool. How to tune the board for currents other than 1A. Tuning the board for different sized motors requires changing the 2 sense resistors, this page also covers software mods. More info here.Almost stepless operation... The board can be "tuned" for a specific speed band, and steps are smoother through ALL rev ranges with the built in step ramping. How the board works (long). Instructions! As this is a kit of parts, here is a page on: How to build it High-Torque half-stepping! I use a little known form of half- stepping as one of the main modes. More about the special half-step system: High-Torque half stepping Circuit Diagram click here. PCB (Board) Layout click here. PIC Software click here to READ it. PIC Software click here to DOWNLOAD it as a ZIP file.
Picture of the linistepper driving a 5v 1A motor.
The other circuit board is a 555 timer and some dip switches,
that clocks the STEP input and can switch the DIRECTION and
LOW POWER inputs and change the stepping mode between 200, 400,
1200, 3600 steps/rev. The heatsink shown looks large as my camera
has a slight "fish-eye" lens.
-end
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