Description of the specific challenge: I have Arduino with GRBL that runs mini 3-axis CNC through three Easydrivers and it works great. Unfortunately, Easydrivers are limited in their max current and cannot handle my larger steppers. Wanted to substitute these with more robust controllers that came with the motors (as part of a older broken printers) that could take the same commands that Arduino sends to the Easydriver and control the motors.
About the Easydriver: It uses A3967 controller with the interpreter where "By simply inputting one pulse on the STEP input the motor will take one step (full, half, quarter, or eighth depending on two logic inputs). Maximum step frequency is 500 and here is the datasheet.
So, If I substituted the Easydriver with one of the drivers listed below - IB462 or Sanyo STK672-110 (and assuming that I figured out and addressed all other requirements for other pins on those drivers), can they control the motors the same way based on the Arduino outputs? The major difference I see that, instead of sending pulses at a certain frequency, these drivers would be receiving distinct pulses at random times and this is when they should be moving the steppers (based on microstepping and direction settings and one step for each incoming pulse).
Here is what gives me some hope but wanted to confirm and get some direction before diving in:
from the Insturctables site: "In it's simplest form a PWM square wave can be created with a few lines of code. The following code would produce a signal with a 1 second Frequency and a 10% duty cycle. " http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Ha...r-motor-drives/
And here is the verbiage that scares me a little because it seems that clock input may not be just a simple collection of pulses at a certain frequency that can be easily "broken up":
1 - From IB462: The IB462H is a bipolar chopping stepper motor drive. It receives step clock, direction and mode signals from the system controller to generate constant phase currents which are adjustable in magnitude.
2 - And from Sanyo STK672-110:The incorporation of a phase distribution IC allows the STK672-110 to control the speed of the motor based on the frequency of an external input clock signal.
P.S. I am very new to electronics and probably need "baby talk" to understand the implications and how to move forward. thank you in advance. This question is only about the input into the controller. I probably will not able to grasp or need to know what happens inside the controller/interpreter - tried with the help of this forum and failed already.
About the Easydriver: It uses A3967 controller with the interpreter where "By simply inputting one pulse on the STEP input the motor will take one step (full, half, quarter, or eighth depending on two logic inputs). Maximum step frequency is 500 and here is the datasheet.
So, If I substituted the Easydriver with one of the drivers listed below - IB462 or Sanyo STK672-110 (and assuming that I figured out and addressed all other requirements for other pins on those drivers), can they control the motors the same way based on the Arduino outputs? The major difference I see that, instead of sending pulses at a certain frequency, these drivers would be receiving distinct pulses at random times and this is when they should be moving the steppers (based on microstepping and direction settings and one step for each incoming pulse).
Here is what gives me some hope but wanted to confirm and get some direction before diving in:
from the Insturctables site: "In it's simplest form a PWM square wave can be created with a few lines of code. The following code would produce a signal with a 1 second Frequency and a 10% duty cycle. " http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Ha...r-motor-drives/
And here is the verbiage that scares me a little because it seems that clock input may not be just a simple collection of pulses at a certain frequency that can be easily "broken up":
1 - From IB462: The IB462H is a bipolar chopping stepper motor drive. It receives step clock, direction and mode signals from the system controller to generate constant phase currents which are adjustable in magnitude.
2 - And from Sanyo STK672-110:The incorporation of a phase distribution IC allows the STK672-110 to control the speed of the motor based on the frequency of an external input clock signal.
P.S. I am very new to electronics and probably need "baby talk" to understand the implications and how to move forward. thank you in advance. This question is only about the input into the controller. I probably will not able to grasp or need to know what happens inside the controller/interpreter - tried with the help of this forum and failed already.
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