• Stepper Motor Driver Chip
• Stepper Motor Drivers And Controllers

Peggle nights big fish games. 19 rows  Stepper drivers normally work by chopping up a supply voltage using an embedded PWM. ST's portfolio of STSPIN stepper motor drivers spans from relatively simple ICs with current control and phase generation to more complex solutions. They combine in a single chip all that is needed to autonomously drive a stepper motor using high-level motion commands coming from the motor or motion.

In simplified terms, the rotor of a stepper motor consists of permanent magnets with poles and a stator with windings. The rotor is constructed using a single magnet mounted in line with the rotor axis and two pole pieces with many teeth. The teeth are staggered to produce many salient poles.

The stepper motor is easy to position and moves in steps based on pulses supplied to the stator windings. The direction of rotation is changed by reversing the pulse sequence and speed is controlled by the frequency of pulses or pulse rate. The 'Micro Stepping Details' below demonstrates this principle for a stepper motor using full step commutation. Just as the rotor aligns with one of the stator poles, the second phase is energized. The two phases alternate on and off, and also reverse polarity. There are four steps. One phase lags the other phase by one step. This is equivalent to one fourth of an electrical cycle or 90°. Stepper motors have a high holding torque but they cannot run at high speeds.

Stepper motor drivers are specifically designed to drive stepper motors, which are capable of continuous rotation with precise position control, even without a feedback system. Our stepper motor drivers offer adjustable current control and multiple step resolutions, and they feature built-in translators that allow a stepper motor to be controlled with simple step and direction inputs. These modules are generally basic carrier boards for a variety of stepper motor driver ICs that offer low-level interfaces like inputs for directly initiating each step. An external microcontroller is typically required for generating these low-level signals.

Most of our stepper motor drivers are available in compact (0.6″×0.8″), pin-compatible form factors. The following table compares our selection of these:

This category also includes several larger driver modules that generally can deliver more current and offer more features than the more compact drivers above:

For higher-level control of a stepper motor, consider our Tic Stepper Motor Controllers, which feature some of the same stepper motor driver ICs as our carrier boards combined with an on-board microcontroller that intelligently generates the low-level control signal in response to a variety of interfaces, such as USB for direct connection to a computer, TTL serial and I²C for use with a microcontroller, RC hobby servo pulses for use in an RC system, analog voltages for use with a potentiometer or analog joystick, and quadrature encoder for use with a rotary encoder dial. The Tics also offer a wide array of settings that can be configured over USB through a free software utility.

Subcategories

These breakout boards for STMicro’s STSPIN220 bipolar stepper motor drivers feature nine different microstepping resolutions down to 1/256-step, adjustable current limiting, and operation down to 1.8 V.

These breakout boards for STMicro’s STSPIN820 bipolar stepper motor drivers feature eight different microstepping resolutions down to 1/256-step, adjustable current limiting, and a wide operating range of 7 V to 45 V.

These breakout boards for Toshiba’s TB67S2x9FTG bipolar stepper motor drivers feature adjustable current limiting, adaptive gain control technology, seven microstep resolutions (down to 1/32-step), and more. They operate from 10 V to 47 V and can deliver approximately 1.2 A or 1.7 A phase without a heat sink (depending on the version).

These breakout boards for the MPS MP6500 bipolar stepper motor driver feature adjustable current limiting, over-current and over-temperature protection, and four microstep resolutions (down to 1/8-step). They operate from 4.5 V to 35 V and can deliver approximately 1.5 A per phase without a heat sink (driver is rated for up to 2.5 A per coil).

These breakout boards for TI’s DRV8825 bipolar stepper motor driver feature adjustable current limiting, over-current and over-temperature protection, and six microstep resolutions (down to 1/32-step). They operate from 8.2 V to 45 V and can deliver approximately 1.5 A per phase without a heat sink (they are rated for up to 2.2 A per coil).

Stepper Motor Driver Chip

These Black Edition driverse are higher-performance drop-in replacements for the original A4988 stepper motor driver carrier. They feature a four-layer PCB for better thermal performance, allowing the A4988 microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver to deliver approximately 20% more current than our two-layer version.

These breakout boards for Allegro’s A4988 bipolar stepper motor driver feature adjustable current limiting, over-current and over-temperature protection, and five microstep resolutions (down to 1/16-step). They operate from 8 V to 35 V and can deliver approximately 1 A per phase without a heat sink (they are rated for up to 2 A per coil).

Products in category “Stepper Motor Drivers”

This discrete MOSFET stepper motor driver enables control of one bipolar stepper motor. It supports a wide 8 V to 50 V operating voltage range and can deliver up to 4 A continuous per phase without a heat sink or forced air flow (6 A max with sufficient additional cooling). The SPI interface allows configuration of the current limiting, step mode (9 step modes from full-step through 1/256-step), decay mode, and stall detection. The driver also provides back-EMF feedback that can be used for more advanced control and stall detection algorithms. Additional features include reverse-voltage, under-voltage, and over-current protection.

Stepper Motor Drivers And Controllers

This breakout board makes it easy to use Toshiba’s TB67S128FTG microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver, which features adjustable current limiting and microstepping down to 1/128-step. In addition, it has the ability to dynamically select an optimal decay mode by monitoring the actual motor current, and it can automatically reduce the driving current below the full amount when the motor is lightly loaded to minimize power consumption and heat generation. The driver has a wide operating voltage range of 6.5 V to 44 V and can deliver approximately 2.1 A per phase continuously without a heat sink or forced air flow (up to 5 A peak). It features built-in protection against under-voltage, over-current, and over-temperature conditions; our carrier board also adds reverse-voltage protection (up to 40 V).

This is a breakout board for ON Semiconductor’s AMIS-30543 microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver, which features SPI-adjustable current limiting, 11 step modes (from full-step through 1/128-step), back-EMF feedback that can be used for stall detection or optional closed-loop control, and over-current and over-temperature protection. The board operates from 6 V to 30 V and can deliver up to approximately 1.8 A per phase without a heat sink or forced air flow (it is rated for 3 A per coil with sufficient additional cooling).

This is a breakout board for TI’s DRV8834 microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver. It has a pinout and interface that are nearly identical to those of our A4988 carriers, so it can be used as a drop-in replacement for those boards in many applications. The DRV8834 operates from 2.5–10.8 V, allowing stepper motors to be powered with voltages that are too low for other drivers, and can deliver up to approximately 1.5 A per phase continuously without a heat sink or forced air flow (up to 2 A peak). It features adjustable current limiting, overcurrent and overtemperature protection, and six microstep resolutions (down to 1/32-step). This board ships with 0.1″ male header pins included but not soldered in.

This breakout board for TI’s DRV8880 microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver features adjustable current limiting, overcurrent and overtemperature protection, and six microstep resolutions (down to 1/16-step). In addition, the driver’s current limit can be dynamically reduced to save power, and it has an autotune feature that automatically selects the decay mode that results in the smoothest current waveform. The carrier has a pinout and interface that are nearly identical to those of our A4988 carriers, so it can be used as a drop-in replacement for those boards in many applications. The DRV8880 operates from 6.5 V to 45 V and can deliver up to approximately 1 A per phase continuously without a heat sink or forced air flow (up to 1.6 A peak). This board ships with 0.1″ male header pins included but not soldered in.

Related categories