The stepper motor driver is responsible of inject the electric current to the motors in the required sequence for proper operation.

This is an image of one of the fully assembled modules.

The core of this module is the integrated controller IMT901 by Nanoteck (reissue of the TA8435H by Toshiba). In the image can be seen bolted to the heat sink (it is a microprocessor heat sink recovered form an old PC and divided by half). The controller allows using four different step modes (full step, half step, quarter step and eighth in passing), reversing the rotation direction and varying speed thanks to a clock signal. The limits of power, speed, torque, etc that can handle this module depends on the IMT901 (more information in the datasheet file that you can find in downloads section).

This is the schema for the module.

The module has three input and output connectors:

• Power connector: this connector provides the voltage needed to power the motors. For the motors of the Bundgard CCD machine, the required voltage was 29VDC. Voltage reduction for the rest of the circuit is achieved by LM7805 integrated circuit.
• Output connector to the motor: This connector has four connecting pins, one for each winding of the stepper motor.
• Data connector: it groups the clock signal, the rotation direction signal, the enabling signal, the precision signal (step mode), the ground of the circuit and a 5Vdc power signal output.

For the development of circuits we used OrCAD. The following images show the upper and lower layers of the printed circuit board developed.

* These images don't have the right size. In order to print correctly and build the circuit must use PDFs or DXF files that are included in the file "Módulo Motores Paso a Paso.zip" in the download section (currently available only in Spanish).

For more information please go to the documentation attached.

That's all for today.

See you!