PC/Stepper/Driver Configuration

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Hi all! I’m looking to make a 2-axis gantry, with each axis utilizing the stepper motor found here. It’s a NEMA 23, Bipolar, 4.2A motor, and I’d like to use this stepper motor controller. The computer I’m using is an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier, which has some GPIO, but what I’d really like is a USB-to-controller adapter (the cheaper the better) that can help me get the motor up and running over USB. This is so I don’t load up my limited GPIO pins (not that I would even know where to start if I did connect them to GPIO). Does something like this exist? Thanks!

Edit: Could I simply use this Tic 249 board to drive each stepper? It looks like it has a decent USB interface and its max current per phase (4.5A) is greater than the 4.2A required by the motor. I’d have to cool it with a fan, but that wouldn’t be a problem.

One more edit: I’m prototyping a single 2-axis gantry right now, but am intending for it to be scaled to hundreds of units, all connected to one or as few of PC’s as possible (hence me not really wanting to use an arduino as a go-between).

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Hi,

Welcome to the RobotShop Community :slight_smile:

The Tic T249 USB Multi-Interface Stepper Motor Controller has only one stepper output, therefore, it would allow you to control one stepper at a time through the USB interface. Since you are planning to control 2 steppers simultaneously, this might create a lot of overhead to try synchronizing the control of 2 steppers independently through 2 USB interfaces.

Instead, you could use this USB CNC Controller PoKeys57U that would control 2x 20-80V 2.4-7.2A Digital Stepper Motor Driver for Nema 34 . It is compatible with Mach3 and Mach4 software. We invite you to take a look at its User Manual to have a better idea about this product.

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