instructables
Driving Multiple Stepper Motors From a Single Driver
by imageguy
This instructable talks about driving multiple bipolar
stepper motors (such as used in RepRap 3D printers)
from a single driver, such as a Pololu Shield. Each
motor is driven via two circuits, call them 1 and 2.
Each circuit has two wires, call them A and B. The
wires are connected in order 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B.
To connect multiple motors to a single driver, you can
wire them either in parallel, or in series. Either will
work, but motors wired in series will produce more
power. To see why, consider the electrical
characteristics of the motors and the driver.
RepRap motors are often rated 2A and 1.1ohms.
Using Ohm's Law, such a motor needs 2.2V of
power. Pololu Shield is rated 2A and gets 12V from
the RAMPS board (or at least I think it does). If you
wire the motors in parallel, every motor gets the full
voltage, but the current is split, meaning that the total
current is still only 2A - no matter how many motors
you add, there is no more power. I found this out the
hard way, when I was building a printer where I used
four motors to lift a fairly substantial gantry in the
vertical direction. It would not budge.
In contrast, wiring the motors in series splits the
voltage, but every motor gets the full current. Given
how little voltage each motor really needs, you should
be able to get five times the power if you use five
Driving Multiple Stepper Motors From a Single Driver: Page 1
motors. In my case, the same four motors wired in
series had no problem lifting the same gantry with
power to spare.
To wire the motors in series, split the 1A and 2A
wires from 1B and 2B wires in the cable coming from
the driver and connect to the first and third pin on the
header where you'll plug in the first motor. Connect
1B from the first header to the 1A on the second
header (i.e., the header where you'll plug in the
second motor). Connect 2B from the first header to
2A on the second header. Continue this A to B
connection as you add more headers. On the last
header, connect 1B and 2B pins to the 1B and 2B
wires going to the driver. See the wiring diagram.
See the picture of my distribution board with two Y
motors and four Z motors, each set wired in series.
To map the picture to the diagram, left is top, two
wires are connected on the left side and two on the
right.
Keep in mind that, to have the motors work, you must
have all the motors connected, otherwise the circuit is
interrupted. If you for any reason don't want to fully
populate your headers, use jumpers to short 1A to 1B
and 2A to 2B where you have any motors missing.
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