Hey guys, very new to all this. I'm building a cnc plotter as my first project with some parts that I inherited (8020 extrusion, stepper motors, drivers, bunch of wires, etc).
I'm using a NEMA23 on a 24v power supply for the Y axis, and a NEMA17 on the X axis. What do I need to do to make sure that I don't damage the circuit?
NEMA 23 is running through a TB6550 driver and the NEMA 17 is an AR4988.
When testing out the wiring for each motor both power supplies weren't connected, but to upload and calibrate GBRL I need to have everything connected.
What should and shouldn't I do? I've already blown out one driver and arduino board.
You have only mentioned a 24v power supply even though your title refers to two power supplies.
The stepper motor drivers that you mention will be perfectly happy with 24v. Just make sure that the current limits are set to match the motors they control.
I think the issue is that some stepper drivers must have motor supply connected whenever their
logic 5V is present?
If you are worried about the hardware going crazy during uploads and so forth (crashing endstops,
driving tool into bed etc etc), you can do this:
power down everything
disconnect the stepper drivers from the Arduino
Power up arduino, download GRBL etc
power down
reconnect
power everything up and test.
This is a pain hoever.
Often its simpler to temporarily loosen the motor drive couplings so it doesn't matter what the motors
do (and its possible to observe their behaviour to some extent).
The underlying issue is that steppers are usually powerful enough to damage the mechanical
parts of the system, there's no easy way to torque-limit them... Servomotors are much more
flexible in this regard.