1/10/2020 ‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
Stepper Drivers Guide for 3D Printer Mainboards
Stepper Drivers, Not Your Normal Motor?
Stepper Drivers are an important part of any 3D printer, We've covered a litle about how your
printer works. You feed it instructions in a language called GCode, which basically says “Up Z Axis,
Increase ¥ Axis, Decrease X Axis, Extrude Imm." There is a small problem with this though: how
do we know the printer Is moving a millimeter?
Think about a typical motor, like the motor in @ window fan or in your blender, It has basically two
states: on and off. You can change how fest it's going, but there's no feedback exectly to say how
much it's moved, The motor is just getting more or less current, which causes it to move faster or
slower. The RPMS could vary by hundreds of revolutions from moment to moment. It’s great for a
fan, but if you wanted to move exactly 1 cubie foot of air, you wouldn't have the control to ¢o it,
not enough precision or feedback,
The solution?
This is where the stepper motor comes in, The motor in your fan, washing machine, blender, and
‘most other common appliances has perhaps four windings in it. These are electro magnets that
at
precision with just four windings. In normal operation, they rapidly toggle on and off to force the
armature to spin past them, If we left one on, the armature would point at It. Turn another on, it
moves there, Maybe put on two at once, side by side, and we could get the armature stuck in
leen them. It's not wired to do that, but that’s about what would happen. A stepper motor
works on that principle, we turn on the windings we need to control exactly wher:
ict and repel the armature, the metal shaft that goes through the motor, There isn’t a lot of
armature
In a stepper motor, the armature has teeth that are attracted to the windings. Each movement of
a tooth to a winding is a step. There are typically thirty plus teeth on the armature. Thirty steps to
2 full rotation. Combine this with some gearing, such as the long threads of a 3D printer or the
notches of a drive belt, and we're able to get sub-millimeter precision. A step up from that, you
take more direct control of the windings and you can do something called Microstepping, where
you control the position between steps.
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards! wr1/10/2020 ‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
‘Stepper Drivers:
\ibot ORVEEES Stepper Motor Over || ERYONETUC2208V1.2.80 Per 1QU Ats86 Compatible SepSick
oe ayer win in Heat Sink ‘Shopper Wot OrverMoaue win Hest || Stppar oor Diver Meaule wi
sr sa50
a) 2) (29)
About Those Stepper Drivers
Stepper motors are more complicated than your typical electric motor. We can’t just toggle power
on and off. We need to manage each of the windings inside the stepper motor. More than that, we
need to control how much power we put in. This is going to take at least four wires to drive this
thing. It’s going to take processing power to manage the flow of electricity from winding to
winding in a controlled manner. Consider there are at least four mators, and probably more
Involved in your 30 printer, and it becomes a lot to jugale.
You have at least one for X, another for Y, and potentially two on the Z axis to raise/lower either
the print head or printer bed, and you've got at least one for the extruder. There's also accessories
like a fan and heated print bed to keep up with. There's only so much 10 capacity on your 34
printer's mainboard and it's little microcontroller can only do so much at once.
This is where a Stepper Drivers come in. Your microcontroller will send basic instructions to the
driver, turn +four steps” and the driver will manage the rest. The driver will manage the current
to the stepper, it will manage which windings are energized, and it could do a whole lot more,
‘There's a whole world of specialized functions your driver can do. The driver Is a dedicated brain
and switching hardware (typically MOSFETS). That little brain can have a wide range of algorithms
baked in to enable microstepping for increased precision, stall detection for overloading the
‘motor, law noise operation, and even higher voltage operation
Let's Download Some Drivers
(Just Kidding..)
We're going to look at drivers fram two major suppliers: Trinamic and Pololu. These companies
both offer a variety of features at a wide renge of prices. They have something that will suit your
needs whether you're looking for something cheaper to dabble with or are working to 3D print @
cell.
hitps:P3dadelct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!1/10/2020
‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
AMAZON TOP 3D PRINTERS,
aceetia
Trinamic 2100 Stepper Drivers
The $5 Entry Item,
This is @ good, base driver to start experimenting on. It's affordable for single-unit orders, and if
you manage to accidentally pump 24 volts in because you misread that note about center~
negative on your power supply... It's affordable to break.
‘The features on offer at this price point are fairly barebones. Trinamic claims up to 256
microsteps per step, silent operation, and 2 peak output of 2.5 amps and 46 Volts DC. The 2100
also features current reduction when the motor is stationary, as It takes less torque to hold a
position, Onboard hardware detects and prevents overheating and some shorting.
We feel this is an ideal driver for a beginner. You can quickly prototype on it and there’s nothing
complicated or advance to wrap your head around. You hook up and immediately start stepping. It
doesn’t offer @ lot of fancy features, but it doesn't have to, It's just there to work,
Trinamic 2130
The Other $5 Option
‘The 2100's bigger brother, and it’s very nearly the same chip. The extra few cents you pay gets
backed in support for load dependent speed control, stall prevent, lower temperature operation vie
their fullStep option, current sensing, passive braking and freewheeling, and otherwise, all those
features of the 2100, Kinda funny that these almost cost the seme, right? (More on that later),
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!1/10/2020 ‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
Going with the 2130 means deating with its added features, which isn't always @ plus. It’s easy to
get sidetracked by all these extra options, having the ability to more precisely manage the speed
of the driver or monitor the motor’s load are nice things. These nice features also have a cost:
your time, Going with a more advanced driver may not greatly impact the cost to the home
hobbyist or even small professional, but taking advantage of those features, will take time to
study, code up, and implement.
If you're just learning about stepper motors, this isn’t an ideal situation to start in. Having these
features is tempting, and you might add them to your code, and get hung up when something
doesn’t work quite as you expected. It can prevent you from learning the basies. We recommend
this criver to intermediate users who already understand stepper operation and firmware
‘modifications.
Trinamic 2208
The Actual Barebones, Budget Option, for $2
‘You would exaect the 2200 to have more features than the 2100, An Intel 8700 is generally better
than an Intel 6700. That pattern doesn’t hold true here. The 2208 is a more bare bones option.
It’s key features are silent operation, interpolation, passive braking, freewheeling, and a sense
resistor. OF the three Trinamic’s we've looked at, this one even has the lowest operating voltage,
just 36 Volts DC and a max output of 1.4 amps.
‘There Is however, one big difference we found: the control interface. The 2100 and 2130 use SPI.
‘The UART implementation here is for single-wire operation. SPI is a faster interface, but it takes
‘more wires ta run, Configurations like this are ideal for optimizing the cost of your hardware, If
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!1/10/2020
‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
you want to cut dovin on the cost of a product, and your hardware has unused features, you cut
them out.
We don’t recommend this driver to the average DIY‘er, This is something designed for use in bulk
production. If you're making a batch of 100 custem-made 30 printers or some other bulk-
production, that’s where this shines. It’s a low-cost option for where lower features are needed to
deliver on an exact idea.
Pololu A4988
Straightforward Stepper Drivers
We like Pololu’s branding and documentation for their drivers. Everything we could want is right in
front of us. Their A4988 Is a straight forward, easy to deploy driver, it can handle up to an 8 wire
stepper motor, provides 16 microsteps per step (but can be configured for fewer), allows users
to Increase the output voltage to increase stepper speeds (at your own risk), and ships with your
standard current, short, and thermal protections.
This is another strong contender for a hobbyist just getting into stepper drivers, We believe the
river is easy enough to operate, the documentation is through, and at $6, it'd be easy for us to
throw are money at it to dive in on the field
Pololu DRV8825
Revenge of the Features
If the A4988 are straightforward stepper drivers, then the DVR882S is the go-anywhere version of
that. It offers 32 microsteps per step, operation of to 45 volts and with enough cooling will push
2.2 amps per coil, It's @ drop in replacement to the A498B with nearly Identical pinout, so perfect
for an ineplace upgrade. And most importantly we think, Is that it can run on 3.3 and § volt
systems. Built-in regulation on the board allows for just a lttle more flexibility
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!1/10/2020 ‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
‘You might ot think multi-voltage support is a big deal, but it can be, When you're designing
electronics, everything has their own voltage requirements. You might use a S volt raspberry pl,
you might have a relay board at 3.3 volts, you might have @ lower power micro controller at 3.3
volts, there could be a screen running at 9 volts. Power management gets to be an issue, This,
board will perform better than it’s cheaper counterpart, it's stil straight forward to operate, and
it's more forgiving about operating voltages.
This is @ $9 driver, so it's not quite as cheap as the competition, but it’s robust design makes it an
easy upgrade choice from other Pololu boards, and we think it might even be a good starter
board. It’s not dripping in overly complicated features, it just works and gives users a litle extra
Performance and compatibility along the way.
‘Top 30 Printers
CCongrow Craty Enders | | fet CrealiyEnser330 || 30-Ptnes LABISTS Auto || 30 Pn, LABISTS in
P1039 Pterwt Rem, Pant Fly Oper Sour. {Lovelng $0 Pant DIYK.. | | Besiap 0 Peta Yk
236.00 eons 20698 s21099 suss0
(20s) 2708) a (198)
Ccreaty LO-202H LoD Resin | | sD Pinar LABISTS Auto || Anat AB 20 Prt, FOMOIY | | Chsy Oficial Ender V2 30
sp rer UyPhoeuring | | Leveling 30 Pree OW K.._| | 30 Pe Ks, FON Pntrth Upens
wth Adve,
s20098 ‘139.00 soc ssz095
$240.00 sence cy 6) «2
A Note About Stepper Drivers Pricing
‘You might've noticed something about the Trinamic Parts: Their resellers offer bulk pricing, and in
many instances default to a order of 2000 units. That's the market Trinamic is focused on. At that
level, the pricing difference between the 2100 and 2130 is a bigger deal. For a consumer, you
would happily drop an extra dollar for the added features. For a camera manufacturer or other
large-scale production, the math is diferent: get 2000 units with out the extra feature, or get
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!1/10/2020
‘Sapper Divars Guide for 30 Printer Mainboards | 30Addit
1400 with the extra feature. You need to justify those costs by using the extra features, or go for
the cheaper unit, It doesn’t cost @ lot in the individual scale, but those pennies add up,
Trinamic
‘Trinamic is aiming for the bigger fish in the pond, they want to sell to companies that'll think
nothing of a six figure order. The advantage here is that you know their hardware will be
supported for years. You can’t sell fifty thousand units to a large manufacturer and then say “oh,
sorry, we won't make it any more. Buy fifty thousand of our new product to get support.” There
are some advantages in buying from the professional manufacturing market.
Pololu
Pololu on the otherhand, seems far more focused an the hobbyist and maker space. Their website
provides pricing up to 100 units for bulk ordering, about enough for a small, custom
manufacturing run at a makerspace. Their documentation is rich, with pictures and details to tell
you the most about their products, Admittedly with Trinamic, they give you their trademarked
names for the features and you don’t know anything until you get the datasheet,
With that in mind, we would give some heavy weight to Pololu if you're trying to learn about.
Steppers and Stepper Drivers. Communication is a powerful component in making use of anything
in the maker and design space.
Need Help configuring Marlin Firmware?
Marlin 2.0 Beginner Guide for 3D Printer Firmware
DAddiet
he Bopnntadlet com
‘Got your dose of 3D Printing Tips and Information. [hope you fin this blag fl of helpful information. you ike
what you see please support this bog by purchasing items from the alate Links you see. Thanks for your support
‘and happy rina
hitps:f3dadct com/stepper-dvers-guide-for-3¢-prnter-mainboards!
uw