ROUTOUT CNC / ROUTOUTCNC Driver Wanted

[Mxml]

Hi,

I'm in need of a single routout cnc 2.5A stepper driver. I blew mine by wiring up a stepper incorrectly. Does anyone have one going spare?

Thanks!

[JohnHaine]

I think these are A4988 based and equivalents are widely available, for example:

https://www.pololu.com/product/1182

or

https://thepihut.com/products/a4988-...-black-edition

There are also nearly identical boards with more recent driver chips such as the DRV8825:

https://www.pololu.com/product/2133

...and I have bought those from UK stockists.

[Mxml]

Thanks for the response. I think those look good but don’t have enough juice for steppers I have. My steppers run at 4.2A at 1.6V:
https://cnc4you.co.uk/resources/Step...08%201.5Nm.pdf

Your point does open up the question of why I am looking for a routoutcnc driver specifically, and the answer is that I’m playing it safe because I have limited knowledge and limited cash to experiment with. I have a routoutcnc BoB and the routoutcnc drivers attach neatly with screw terminals to pins on the BoB, and I know that they will work together. However, the routoutcnc drivers are in fact underpowered for my new steppers and ideally I'd get beefier drivers.

If you or anyone else could help me understand whether I could use a different, more powerful and more mass-produced driver with my steppers and BoB I’d be very grateful.

This is the routoutcnc driver’s specs:
https://www.tiggyengineering.com/wp-...5ampdriver.pdf

Routoutcnc Breakout Board:


Routoutcnc driver:


As you can see the driver has 8 screw terminals that connect to the BoB:
GND, +VE, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, STEP, DIR, EN, GND

Ideally I’d use something like this, which is capable of 4A of current:
https://wiki.dfrobot.com/TB6600_Step...r_SKU__DRI0043

The TB6600 driver has screw terminals labeled:
VND, VCC, A+, A-, B+, B-, EN-, EN+, DIR-, DIR+, PUL-, PUL+

Could I wire the TB6600 to the routoutcnc BoB, even though the screw terminals are labeled differently, and the TB6600 has more of them?

Any help appreciated!

[JohnHaine]

I stongly advise you not to use TB6600 based drivers, it is an old chip design and they have a poor reputation for reliability. There are loads of more modern drivers available with similar ratings, I suggest you look at something like this, also from CNC4YOU:

https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/Microstepp...tepping-CW5045

The only difference in labelling really is that they bring out both sides of the opto-isolated inputs, you just ground the side labelled "-" on each.

[Mxml]

Ok thank you for the advice.

[Mxml]

The only difference in labelling really is that they bring out both sides of the opto-isolated inputs, you just ground the side labelled "-" on each.

Could I bother you with one more question on this. Looking at the wiring diagram for the CNC4YOU driver you linked, the driver connects to a controller with four terminals: VCC, SIGNAL, DIR SIGNAL, ENABLE SIGNAL.



As mentioned, mine are labeled differently (STEP, DIR, EN, GND). I'm concerned by the difference between the diagram's VCC to my controller's GND. You mentioned "you just ground the side labelled "-" on each" but the diagram shows the -'s connected to the controller's SIGNAL, DIR and ENABLE terminals, and the +'s connected to the VCC terminal. Should I be worried that connecting the driver to my controller's GND terminal would not to the same thing as connecting it to a VCC terminal as shown in the diagram?

Sorry to drag this out, I really appreciate your help.

[JohnHaine]

So the CNC4YOU diagram assumes "open collector" outputs on the controller. The driver has opto isolators on each input, with an LED that illuminates a photodiode so there is complete "galvanic" isolation between the inputs and the internal circuitry. Each LED has a 270R current limiting resistor as well as potentially another series resistor R which may be needed with higher values of Vcc as shown in the table.

Your controller seems to have +5v logic outputs rather than open-collector judging by the spec of the routout stepper driver - do you have a spec for the controller itself? Assuming that I'm right, the BoB outputs should go to the + side of the driver inputs rather than that being connected to Vcc, and the - sides should be grounded to your BoB ground. You should not need a Vcc connection between the BoB and the driver since this is derived internally.

You may find that the logic levels are now inverted in which case you will need to fix them in config.

[Mxml]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I had a look around and though it's no longer online, I found an archived webpage and PDF using the wayback machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211...mainboard.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20200923...otherboard.pdf

It says that it has a maximum logic input of 5V but doesn't say anything about the output. However, if you look at these specs along with the specs of the associated driver board it says the following MAX values (https://www.tiggyengineering.com/wp-...5ampdriver.pdf) :
Input Voltage 30 Volts DC
· Logic Input :
Step / Direction / Enable Voltage
Logic High Min 2.9 MAX 5 V
Logic Low MAX 1.5 V

[JohnHaine]

Quite. That's why I said what I did.

[Mxml]

Thanks for your help. Will give it a go :)