Find a Retailer SHOP PRODUCT MENU BLOG find products, tutorials, etc... HOME / P R O D U C T C A T E G O R I E S LEARN 0 SUPPORT LOG IN EDUCATION Need Help? REGISTER FORUM / STEPPER MOTOR DRIVER / SPARKFUN AUTODRIVER - STEPPER MOTOR DRIVER (V13) SparkFun AutoDriver - Stepper Motor Driver (v13) B O B - 1 3 7 5 2 ROHS 6 DESCRIPTION FEATURES DOCUMENTS Supports up to 128 Microsteps per Full Step Daisy-Chain Capable Over-Temperature Detect Over-Current Detect Under-Voltage Detect PWM Drive-Voltage Limiting SPI Controlled Onboard Oscillator and Speed/Location Registers Stall Detection 5-bit ADC Tags AUTODRIVER DAISY-CHAIN DRIVER L6470 ROBOTICS images are CC BY 2.0 SHARE Previous Versions SparkFun AutoDriver - Stepper Motor Driver (v13) Product Help and Resources SKILLS NEEDED TUTORIALS Getting Started with the AutoDriver - v13 SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 SparkFun's AutoDriver is a powerful tool for controlling stepper motors. Here's how to use it. COMMENTS 17 REVIEWS Customer Reviews 3.3 out of 5 6 STEPPER MOTOR Based on 6 ratings: 5 star 2 4 star 2 3 star 0 2 star 0 1 star 2 Currently viewing all customer reviews. 1 of 1 found this helpful: Challenging for a novice, but works perfectly about 9 months ago by CBD verified purchaser I was prompted to write this review because I feel the poor ratings are not deserved. This product works exactly as it should - but it's not a toy for beginners! You need to have a lot of things just so to get this chip (ST L6470) to work correctly, but once you have that right, it can boost the quality of your project tremendously - it is a hugely capable small stepper driver! Some things to look out for: The 3-5V input MUST be powered unless you modify the board jumper to use the 3V internal. The SPI interface will not work unless BOTH the 8-45V power input is powered AND 3-5V input is powered. The RESET# pin must be connected, otherwise the chip will hold itself in reset If the chip is communicating but the motor does not move, make sure the coil wires are not mixed up. The two coils are electrically independent, so mixing them up will make it seem like nothing works. If the motor is vibrating but not moving, reverse one of the coil's wires. There are MANY settings that control motor power (KVAL) and overcurrent limits that can affect how your motor will perform. If you have never used this chip before, you will probably want to write a function that checks the STATUS register a few times a second and decodes and prints out those statuses. This will help keep you informed as you go about tuning the configuration parameters for your application. Oh and don't do like I did and forget to buy connectors and screw terminals to make things more convenient! 1 of 2 found this helpful: Doesn't Work As Described about a year ago by Member #891015 verified purchaser I purchased this as a cheaper alternative to the Gecko Driver. While i do understand it's a item, when i try running a stepper motor with it, once the voltage is above 22V, it stops working. Note I am not exceeding the rated 3A. I have tested the same motor setup with a different (industrial grade) driver and it works up to the motor's rated 48V driver input. 0 of 3 found this helpful: Don't waste your time about a year ago by Member #858029 verified purchaser The provided library zip file won't install properly. All I get is errors stating that the intended folders do not contain any valid library files. I've messed with this thing for days and can not get any of the example sketches to work. None of the sketches provided by others work either. I bought this for a project I needed to finish quickly, and now that project is way behind due to trying to get this thing to work. ROB-24601 replied on November 3, 2016: Sorry you're having problems with the library. If you're going to the above Github link, and downloading that ZIP file, the Arduino IDE won't be able to add it as a ZIP library. You need to follow the AutoDriver Library link, and download that one. I just tested it on two different machines running two different versions of the IDE, and both worked fine. If you're still having issues getting the library to load, I would recommend contacting our tech support team. They should be able to help you get up and running. Nice Stepper Driver last year by Member #191965 verified purchaser The L6470 is a very nice driver, allowing the microcontroller to send it motion commands instead of step pulses. The board seems to break out everything necessary to get up and running. I haven't stacked boards yet, so I can't attest to how well that works. I also didn't bother with the Arduino library. Re: "Doesn't Work As Described" about 11 months ago by Member #871774 verified purchaser I purchased the AutoDriver several months ago and just now got around to working with them. I also ran into the behavior described by member 891015. After some experimenting with the example programs, I discovered higher voltage power supplies can be used by setting up KVAL and OverCurrentThreshold parameters. These need to be tailored to the voltage and resistance specs of the motors. For example, given a 42v supply and 3V, 1.8 ohm motor, set OCThreshold to 3000mA or higher and all KVAL values at or below 19 or 20. If OCThreshold is set higher than 3000mA, I imagine the driver chip will get hot and possibly shut down after a time. I'm still puzzling that out. Best stepper driver about 3 weeks ago by Member #1265417 verified purchaser The dSpin driver offloads acceleration / deceleration profiles, step counting, limit switch homing, and power management, so you don't have to worry about a thing from your code. Library interface is fairly straightforward. Adjustable Parameters: Max / Min Speed, Accel / Decel Rates Microstepping (1 through 128) K-Vals (seperate settings for Accel, Decel, Run, Hold) Overcurrent threshold Edge slew rate Homing / limit switch setup The sparkfun hookup guide is great in it's explanation of the software setup and parameters. The wiring portion, however, lacks a simple straightforward diagram. The two fritzing diagrams are pretty ~nasty~ as far as they go. Especially considering that connections are meant to be made with the ribbon cables, it's pretty unintuitive that the tutorial shows diagrams with a ton of cris-crossing and inconsistently routed wires. START SOMETHING. 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