I’ve been trying to get the DRV8825 driver to drive my Nema 17 motor, but I’m not getting any value on my motor output. I have the driver connected to an Arduino Nano according to the DRV8825 schematic, set the current limit to ~1.5 A (~0.75 Vref), supplied 12V for the motor and 5V for the arduino, and uploaded a simple code to the arduino to pulse the step pin.
I tried probing all the other pins on my driver and got the expected values (Sleep = 5V, Reset = 5V, Fault = 5V, DIR = 5V, STEP = alternates between 5V and 0V). Whenever I probe the motor output pins though, without even having the motor connected, I don’t get any voltage. Is my driver just broken?
Hello.
Those voltages all sound appropriate. Did the board ever work for you? Could you post some pictures of your setup that show all of your connections, as well as some close-up pictures of both sides of the DRV8825 carrier board?
Brandon
Thanks for replying! Here’s the images of my set up.
I was never able to get my motor moving. I don’t know if the board was ever working in the first place though because I didn’t try probing the motor output pins until recently. It’s possible that I may have mis-wired something and broken the driver at some point.
Thank you for the additional information. It looks like most of your solder joints on the DRV8825 carrier are not wetting properly to the pads. For reference, they should connect all the way around the pad and have a smooth concave surface; you can find more information on common soldering problems and suggestions to fix them in the Adafruit Guide To Excellent Soldering.
Could you try reworking the solder joints until they more closely resemble the “ideal solder joint” shown in that guide? If you continue having problems after reworking them, please post some updated pictures as well as a copy of your code.
Brandon
Hi Brandon! Resoldering helped and I was able to get the motor to start running. I had trouble getting the motor to move properly, but I think I figured it out that my motor load was too high. Thank you for the help!
Thank you for the update; if you continue having problems after testing with no load on the motor, could you clarify where you were probing on each channel when you took that scope capture?
Just in case, please note that connecting the ground clip to a motor output could damage your probe or scope. If you want to measure motor outputs, two scope channels should be used with the each probe connected to one motor output pin and both ground clips connected to the driver’s ground.
Additionally, could you post a full screen capture of your scope or make sure to show the full screen in your picture (some of the scaling details are cut off in your picture), as well as pictures showing all of your connections, including the ones to the motor (which were not shown fully in your original pictures)?
Brandon