Traverse

[Achiles]

Can this be a solution?
We can even make a "scater" using speed pot manually.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2in1-Reversi...item4ab9b9c65e

[David King]

Well it looks like you would still have to hit the button to reverse directions every time unless you could loop in limit switches. There is no connection point for you to add limit switches so it needs a hack.
This is just an oscillator you could build for $3 with a 555 timer chip. You could build a much more sophisticated oscillator like a Moog that can sweep through different frequencies at different rates using three 555 timer chips. I'll bet there's a app for that all ready to go on Android/Arduino/picaxe/iphone.

How about this one:
Set of 2 Stepper Motor Driver Controller Reversible Stepper Motor Actuator | eBay

[Achiles]

David ,i believe it can be done ,see the second video.

[David King]

So terminals X1-X4 are for external limit switch inputs. Does it do micro stepping and how well does it work in the mid-band motor speeds where most of these drivers aren't so good at handling resonance?

[Achiles]

Sorry David I´m a noob in this cnc world.

[David King]

If you ask them directly they might have good answers. They should know more than anyone else about the products. You can also look up the driver chip they are using and see if the datasheet tells you anything about performance.
Stepper motors are very good at slow speeds but they lose a lot of torque as you try to speed them up. If you stall the motors at high speeds they won't start up again on their own until you slow the pulse train way down. For a traverse you can design around all of this by selecting the best motor for the job and using gears or belts to give you the necessary resolution and the required speed.
Printers are a good example, they always work well (until the paper gets jammed). You could easily use an old printer to move your wire back and forth by printing a very long narrow image at very high resolution from a PC. An old free printer will have everything you need inside it.

[Lyrebird Steve]

Lots of ways to do traverse with linear actuation steppers:

via PC and USB - Phidgets 1063 (BiPolar) or 1062 (unipolar) usb driver boards will run in "chopper" mode so I get pretty good torque at 600 rpm

via Arduino & Sparkfun Easy driver (or Big Easy) - I've also been down this path with mixed results, but I recommend the "Big Easy" driver as you can push more current. I think I saw someone actually driving the Sparkfun Easydriver with a parrallel printer cable attached to a PC

OR

You can do both rotation and linear actuation in one motor (my current project)

[David King]

I dig the dual motion actuator. What does something like that cost? I wonder how the linear part works? Some sort of multi-coil solenoid?

[Lyrebird Steve]

I picked up 5 on eBay for $25 each

The same seller seems to have some cool stuff go through his store (think he re-cycles decomisioned gear)

This one is very useful for those wanting to build a stepper controlled winder ... it has built in encoder $40