Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I bought a Sherline lathe and mill CNC package a year or two ago and was becoming familiar with the Masso control system. However, one of the issues I didn't like was having to change all the cables when moving from one machine to another. Which meant (for me) an opportunity to make a mistake. And so, it proved. It was 100% my fault when I made an error and blew up the Masso control board. I was also trying to install a probe on the milling machine at the same time.

Since Masso are based in Australia, Sherline in the USA and myself in the UK I sought to have the board repaired locally. It was a partial success, restoring some functions, but not all. After enquiring if a replacement was available, I was put in touch with a customer willing to sell his system, as he was moving to Centroid Acorn controllers (with a board to control his lathe and another for the Mill).

He was very helpful and as a result I decided to convert to Acorn instead.

The existing Sherline supplied stepper motors have 5 coloured wires and 1 bare wire. The colours of the wiring of my stepper motors does not exactly match that of the Spec sheet .
I tried to find which was which by measuring each pair with a multi-meter
The stepper drivers he used were DM332T's.

The initial bench test completed along with installing the emergency stop but my problem is getting the single stepper motor (high torque)) to work.
Looking at the Sherline wiring sheet again I decided to try their colours, but substituting their blue with the only remaining choice, black. unfortunately to no avail.

The dip switch settings were set in line with the gentleman’s, who carried out such a conversion previously.
Any help or advice that helps to get the motor working would be appreciated.

I have tried my best to sort this out, but it’s defeated me to date.

As I see it, I have 5 wires to attach to the 4 available on the DM332T drivers but choosing which ones? Along with any other settings I may need to change to get this conversion working.

I am including a report, and the photos which I hope will help.

Thank you in anticipation.
General photos.
Mike

good reference to make sure you have the motor wiring correct is here.
https://www.geckodrive.com/support/step ... asics.html

(Previous post edited)

I should have read the Sherline data sheet before posting. It clearly states that the motors, as shipped, require a unipolar stepper drive; however, if the plug is cut off, the motors can be used with a bipolar drive, like the DM332.

Refer to Figure 1 on the Sherline data sheet. You can wire the motor as full-coil (lower speeds, higher torque) by using the Blue and Orange wires for the A-coil, and the Yellow and Red wires for the B-coil. You can wire the motor as half-coil (faster speeds, lower torque) by using the Blue and Brown wires OR the Orange and Brown wires for the A-coil, and the Yellow and Green wires OR the Red and Green wires for the B-coil.

Thank you CNCKieth and Mike Richards for your feedback. I have studied the Step Motor Basic document and found it useful. Giving me the confidence to cut the plug off the stepper motor itself and see the real colours. Of course mine had to have 9 wires not 4,6 or 8! But by testing the wiring using my multimeter found which ones were needed to use as Unipolar. very much in line with you example Mike.

Not there yet but confident the motor wiring is now correct. So I'll start again and see if I can make progress. Thanks again. Mike

I am pleased to say I now have 3 working Stepper motors on the bench. However, I decided to ditch the Sherline motors and boughthttps://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/produ ... e-kl-5080h.

All are now working on the bench and much simpler (and less frustrating !) to wire up and get working.

Mike Freeman (UK)