Can the MID drives drive a non-microstepping stepper motor?

[Doug Femec]

Can the MID drives drive a non-microstepping stepper motor? I know how to drive this non-microstepping stepper motor using digital signals (and 5B module to attain proper operating voltages and currents), but I am questioning whether the MID stepper drives can do this.

[russellb]

Hello,
We have a knowledgebase which addresses the ability to turn off microstepping with the MID 7602/4:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/93ED0E0B66DCC7D186256AB900659CF5?OpenDocument

According to the above knowledgebase the smallest microstepping factor is 2 or a half step.

Therefore to answer your question, I would ask can your motor handle microstepping or in other words can both phases be powered at the same time?

If yes then you can use the MID with the microstepping factor set to 2. In order to get the correct number of full steps with your motor, in software you will have to enter in twice the number of full steps.

If no, then you will have to use the UMI 7764 and a third party drive which supports non-microstepping.


I would also like to note that the MID 7602/4 is bipolar and does not support unipolar phase motors. If you have a unipolar phase motor then you will need to use the UMI 7764 and a third party drive.

Regards

Russell B
Applications Engineering
National Instruments