Dan Falck
Here are some of the problems that I ran into when I tried to hot rod this
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circuit: I started with a layout that Kevin Carroll sent to me. This is similar to what Dan is selling, only Dan's is much improved. Kevin said that he had run this design so hot that the mosfets had unsoldered themselves before. He even had a switching arrangement that would reduce current to the motor when it wasn't in use-using AND gates. I built the circuit, milling and drilling the traces with my 2 amp controller. I installed the thing in a big old XT type case, with a 24 volt 15 amp transformer and a HUGE heatsink for the mosfets with two muffin fans blowing on everything. The low current switching sort of worked- but actually created a lot of noise in the circuit. When it was physically pulled out of the circuit, it was audibly quieter. Increasing current was real flakey- missed steps and lots of noise. Talking to Kevin, he had some of the same problems. So, out came the low current switching. As I increased the current above 6 amps (minus the AND gates), the signal was still getting flakey. The circuit was missing steps all over the place. My input signals are shielded using single conductor braided audio cable, grounded on one end only and tied together at a common ground point. I physically moved the cables around and found that by turning cables 90 degrees to other cables things improved somewhat. So, I tucked cables in and wiretied them down the best that I could. Are the mosfets acting as little antennas, emitting lots of noise from any sharp corner on them? Satisfied that I had the noise down as low as I could get it, I proceeded to run the current up. Somewhere along the way I blew an axis card. It was within a day of jacking the current up. I ended up replacing one phase on that axis (two mosfets) and then adjusted the current down to 6 amps on X and Y and 5 on Z. My X and Y have triple stack 34 frame steppers, while the Z has a double stack on it. It's been about a year ago now. This controller has worked trouble free ever since and it gets used every day. Things that I could have done better: Shielding- use better quality shielded cables and then shield them some more. I think I used Radio Shack brand on the previous controller. I will use an etched circuit board next time. I suspect the milled board probably contributed to noise due to ragged edges etc... Layout- I will make sure that signals are miles away from motor leads and power supplies. Cooling- how about three fans on the mosfets? Maybe an air conditioner in the shop right next to it! Anyway, that's my mosfet frying story- no flying pieces or burned fingertips. Dan Falck At 03:02 AM 6/13/99 +0100, you wrote:
From: "Mo" <mo@...>know how it goes. The only modification to the board needed to allowhighercurrent is to parallel the existing .1ohm sense resistors with another.1ohmswhich will double the adjustment scale to 10 amps.Matt, |