HARDWARE

Goto board:

  1. TOS-100 – The Arduino Stepper Motor Driver Shield.
  2. stepRocker™ – universal bipolar stepper motor controller & driver

 

The TOS-100 Arduino Stepper Motor Driver Shield

The TOS-100 is an Arduino compatible shield capable of driving one bipolar stepper motor up to 1.7A that utilizes the Trinamic Motion Control TMC260 stepper motor driver chip.

For added compatibility with other arduino shields, the TOS-100 allows you to choose nearly any pin for any signal.

The TOS-100 Arduino Stepper Driver shield is the most easy way to use the Trinamic TMC260 motor driver chip to drive a stepper motor with Arduino. The TMC260 is a stepper motor controller for bipolar stepper motors. The unique features of the TMC260 are that everything can be controlled in software:

  • the motor current
  • microstepping
  • stallGuard2™ sensorless load detection & stall protection
  • coolStep™ load dependent current control for current reduction according to load
  • spreadCycle hysteresis PWM chopper for perfect adaption to the motor
  • microPlyer 16-to-256 μStep multiplier for easier driving and increased positioning precision at all speeds
  • full protection and diagnostics

This makes the TMC260 much more versatile than other stepper motor drivers.

The TOS-100 Arduino Stepper Driver Shield adopts the versatility of the TMC260 Stepper Motor Driver. It comes with various options to install the shield, connect the motor and provide power. The ability to connect any control pin of the TMC260 Stepper Motor Driver to any of the digital pins of the Arduino it is virtually compatible with any other Arduino shield out there. The motor can either be controlled by step & direction pins, as other well known stepper motor drivers or by SPI for a more precise control and less pins used.
The TOS-100 Stepper Driver comes with a complete Arduino Library to get you started as fast as possible.

Getting your TOS-100:

The TOS-100 Arduino Stepper Motor Shield is availlable at Watterott.

Using your TOS-100:

Checkout the Getting Started Guide. Take a look at the Arduino Library source code on github. Participate in the forum to ask or answer questions.
 

stepRocker™ universal stepper motor controller & driver – basis for open source firmware projects

Free stepRocker boards are available as giveaways on different trade shows and exhibitions of  Trinamic and Samsung. Please head to the Trinamic website for more information on upcoming trade shows.

Furthermore, the stepRocker boards are available from Conrad and from Trinamic.

At the beginning there was the idea to build a very universal but cost effective platform for stepper motors that uses the latest available technology. After many discussions the stepRocker™ was born – with SAMSUNG as a partner for the microcontroller, with this community website and an open source firmware concept.
For the first steps only a power supply, a stepper motor and a PC are necessary.
The driver part offers highest smoothness and precision due to a high microstep resolution and the new patented spreadCycle™ chopper scheme for optimized current -zero crossing and -sine wave form. The integrated sensor less load detection stallGuard2™ and the load dependent current control coolStep™ make this board unique. This features make it the first time possible to drive a stepper motor energy efficient!
The integrated ramp- and pulse generating positioning motion controller can be attached via USB or RS485. Up to 3 driver can be controlled simultaneously. A 3-axis application can easily be build by connecting two external drivers (e.g. additional stepRocker™) via step & direction signals.
Software wise two different approaches are possible:
It is possible to use the stepRocker™ with the TrinamicMotionControlLanguage TMCL™. The board comes with the preinstalled firmware. The integrated development environment TMCL-IDE for PC can be downloaded and used free of charge. It is possible to remote control the stepRocker™ or to write and download complete command sequences for stand-alone use.
The alternative is to write the firmware for the SAMSUNG microcontroller using the downloadable software tools and motion control libraries.
Technical data TMCM-1110 stepRocker
Motor type: 2-phase bipolar stepper motor
Motor current (max.): 2,8A / 1A (selectable by jumper)
Power supply: 12-24V
Serial host interface: USB, RS485 (solder option for CAN)
Motion controller output: 2x step & direction (TTL-level)
Driver input: 1x step & direction (TTL-level)
I/Os:
2x end switch input for all 3 axis (TTL-level)
1x ABN-encoder or 3x GP-Input (TTL-level)
6x GP-I/O (TTL-level)
1x analog input, 12-bit, 0-10V
2x open-drain output (100mA)
LEDs:
1x POWER
2x general purpose
1x POSCOMP
1x Interrupt detected
1x stallGuard2 – stall condition detected
Microcontroller:  SAMSUNG S3FN41F (ARM Cortex M0), Size85mm x 55 mm