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Jeremy,
That's one big stepper. You won't run out of torque.
I had to make a few assumptions about your reduction gears to do the calculation..
With gearing and using 16x microstepping and a final step size of 0.5 arc sec per step, I calculate 400+Nm of torque. With 0.2 arc sec per step, I calculate almost 1200 Nm of torque.
You might find such big steppers induce a lot of vibration. Hopefully with a small step angle and microstepping, it won't be too bad. I read some of the posts when you first asked but you didn't tell us what you wanted to do. You were calling it a camera rotator. Most of us thought it was a DIY polarie. Now you are talking about hanging a scope and heavy cameras. It is a telescope mounting or a small camera platform?
Some people prefer to drive steppers from a computer, some from a stand alone pulse generator. Some have their preference and won't sway from it.
I prefer to match the drive to the application. You haven't told us if this is a portable or backyard rig. If portable, a pulse gen may be the way to go. If your camera is running off PC anyway, a PC drive may be the way to go. A pulse gen can be a simple timer circuit or a small programmable PC or similar microprocessor. Running off a PC is very clunky if it is portable but easy if it is a back yard or observatory rig.
For example, my solar eclipse mount is very light and designed to be transported on planes. My design goal was to have the whole mount inc tripod weigh <5kg but still solidly support the scope. I did that using hollow construction. I didn't need a high precision drive for a total eclipse - longest exposure is only 4s. So a simple 555 timer circuit is fine for me as a pulse gen and essential for portability. The drive electronics are built into the eq polar axis housing.
I'm not familiar with the specific driver you have and whether it can take a pulse gen drive or not but the motor is bipolar and there are many very drivers out there that can run off a pulse generator or micros. You need to have the design goals set for yourself even if you don't want to share them here, so you can make the best choice.
Good luck
Joe
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