AE-MDL-STPR1 2.5A Bipolar Stepper Driver with Indexer and Output Protection:
Download MDL-STPR1 data sheet Download MDL-STPR1 Schematic Download MDL-STPR1 BOM
Some time ago controlling a stepper motor was for people with lots of motion control knowledge, enough time on their hand and a good power
electronics background. Then came microstepping and only PhD students were allowed into the occult.
Today you can cheat your way into the most amazing microstepping stepper driving, thanks to the internal indexer and dual H Bridge with
current control housed on a single device, AKA TI’s DRV8811.
We decided to create a little home for the DRV8811 and devise this little 2” by 2” module,
containing enough gimmicks to tackle a good deal of stepper control applications.
The MDL-STPR1 makes it easy to connect your power supply and stepper into its power connectors.
Potentiometers allow for easy configuration of mixed decay mode percentage (DECAY) and VREF (for peak current configuration). Jumpers allow for setting non dynamic signals such as SLEEPn,
USMx and SRn. This is perfect for that CNC application running through your PC computer parallel port.
For those wanting to interface the little module via any microcontroller (MSP430, AVR, 80C51, etc),
a 10 pin header offers access to all necessary signals such as STEP, DIR, ENABLEn, SLEEPn, RESETn, HOME, USMx, etc.
It just can not get any easier!!!
Remember, that as always this is an open source design. Feel free to download Gerbers and fabricate
the board at your convenience. Or hop into our eStore and buy the already fabricated board or fully
functional and tested driver board. I am not trying to get rich, so these savings are passed unto you!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the nature of this device high current capability, we must specify
that in order to obtain the full 2.5A current capability per phase, a great deal of design constraints must be met. On the MDL-STPR1 module, only 2 layers are employed, where four are a must. The
size of the board is only 2” by 2”, not offering enough area to enhance thermal impedance. We have
found that currents below 1A should be easily met. Anything above this level will require extra heat
sinking, possibly a fan, the utilization of external diodes and asynchronous fast decay (SRn = HI),
plus any other technique to allow the proper cooling of this module. Heck, if you can submerge it in transformer oil, that would be the day!
We are working on a 4 layer board with external heat sink and larger copper area to make sure we
can extract the full 2.5A from this device. It will not be easy nor cheap, but we believe it is doable. Thanks for your understanding!
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