5 Axis Stepper board on ebay

I would assume "empower" is Chinese for "enable".

Check the wiki as well for more timing information. Or just start high and go from there.

I believe there some wiring info for steppers on the wiki.

Look in the Configuring EMC2 - how to make it fit your needs section.

John

bvandiepenbos wrote:

, X empower.
what the heck is empower mean? ...what choice do I select in stepconf?

That is probably labelled "Amp Enable" in Stepconf (possibly just "enable"). If you run out of pins later on you can rewire the cable to enable them all on one pin (probably) as EMC2 always puts all the enable pins on together. However, for the time being just keep it simple and define them as the respective amp-enable pins. Note that they might be active-low (check the datasheet) in which case you will need to invert them in stepconf.

What timings should I use in Stepconf? ...it does not list this board.

www.farnell.com/datasheets/75168.pdf
Seems to indicate a minimum step time of 100nS and clock frequency of 15kHz (so that would be a space of 60,000nS..)
I would say that there is no harm in choosing 1000nS for step and the same for space, but limit the axis speed to that max step frequency is 15kHz.

The motor hookup is 4 wire, my motors are 6... can I just not connect the 2 center tap wires?

Yes, that is exactly what you should do. (Actually you should insulate the wires and put them out of the way somewhere, as shorting them to ground is likely to blow up the drivers)

"active low" means that EMC2 has to drive the p-port pin low (0V) to activate the drive.
Mine are configured that way, the inputs are opto-isolated, 5V from the +5V rail goes to the high side of the opto and the low side is connected to the p-port pin. Setting the p-port pin to 0V allows current to flow through the opto, turning it on, and enabling the drive.

Your drives could work that way, or the other way….

bvandiepenbos wrote:

Although motors get pretty warm. The driver board is not getting warm at all.

The motors will get warm, especially when not moving. They are designed to run at up to 90C (200F) , so don't worry until then. You could put temperature sensing stickers on the motors to check.

I have the current setting at 75%

Was that a guess, or based on the motor specification and the driver?

I can only get feed to F150 before it loses steps, I need to 'tune' it to get more speed, suggestions?

What voltage are you running at? The only way to get more speed is to run at a higher voltage, the highest that the drives can handle. (minus a bit of overhead, perhaps). The drives handle the current flow through the motors, so the motor rated voltage is irrelevant.

[quoteused 1000ns timing for all ( Step Time, Step Space, Direction Hold, and Direction Seup)
I noticed some of the pre-sets have different values in these 4 parameters...
What does each do?[/quote]Step Time is the time that the step pin is held high to signal a step, and step space is how long it is held low between steps. Direction setup and direction hold are related to the time that the direction pin needs to be held at a new value before steps can be sent to the drive with an expectation that the new direction will be acted on.

My board has a "Decay Mode" setting...
choices are; Fast, 25%, 50%, or Slow
what does this do?

I am not sure, but I saw that the datasheet went into the subject in some depth.