Hello,
A stepper motor is to be controlled via an s7 1200. I haven't picked out a specific motor yet, but it will probably be a Nema 34 with maybe a gear..
My question is actually quite simple and it's about the motor driver.
I've looked at all kinds of drivers and their main supply is sometimes between 24-48 V (which my PLC supplies..)
Only the signal inputs for the pulses, i.e. left, right, one step further, etc. are always at 5V.
Do you know if there are drivers where I can connect my PTO outputs directly to the driver, or do I always have to reduce the voltage from 24V to 5V when using a PLC?

MODERATION: a commerical link that added nothing to the question was removed

 

Stepper Motor drivers operate at a much higher voltage than the plate rated voltage, this in order to be able to maintain the plate rated voltage throughout the RPM range,
This is the motor supply, the control voltage input can be much lower.
BTW, the NEMA rating applies to the motor face dimensions only.

 

the connection between PLC and stepper driver is product specific.
Many stepper drivers are fine with 24V control signals that come from PLC.
like SureStep:
https://cdn.automationdirect.com/static/manuals/surestepmanual/surestepmanual.pdf

Some drivers are not 24V tolerant and may need series resistors.
For details you need to refer to documentation of your product of choice.

An example of this is
https://cdn.automationdirect.com/static/manuals/leadshinestepper/dm322e.pdf

 

and here is an example of stepper driver that has 24VDC I/O (Oriental Motor, AplhaStep)

 

one could also use external optocouplers to drop 24V to 5V. this is easy to build but low cost version of this are found on Amazon for example. input/output voltage is determined by resistor values.

https://www.amazon.ca/Optocoupler-I...-3-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

https://www.amazon.ca/NOYITO-4-Chan...7f1-8c33-7e045111f1eb&pd_rd_i=B07T8R45WP&th=1

 

Quite often there is a rate consideration when operating a stepper motor. In those cases it is often the case that a dedicated TTL levels output module is used. With many PLC products the 24 volts I/O is not as fast.