New Product: DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier

Hello!

We are excited to introduce the Pololu DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier, an alternative to our popular A4988 carriers that supports 1/32 microstepping, operates over a wider voltage range (8.2 - 42 V), and can deliver more current (approximately 1.5 A per coil without a heat sink). The board dimensions, pinout, and control interface match those of our A4988 carriers in most respects, allowing the DRV8825 to be used as a higher-power drop-in replacement for the A4988 in many applications. (The main differences between the two carriers are listed at the bottom of the DRV8825 product page.) Like our new Black Edition A4988 carrier, this module has a 4-layer, 2 oz copper PCB, and there is an exposed solderable ground pad below the driver IC on the bottom of the PCB.

For more information, please see the DRV8825 product page.

[size=150]Sample Giveaway[/size]

Since we’d like to know how this driver performs as an A4988 substitute, we are giving away some samples to qualified testers. If you are well-equipped to rigorously try out these new drivers and would like to give them a shot, please apply in this thread. Your post should include pictures of your application, what test equipment you have, and your background (e.g. are you an electrical engineer, have you been a serious contributor to the RepRap project, etc).

- Ben

I am glad you like these chips. When I first suggested them on the RepRap forums http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?13,136937 back in June I did not think you would be the first to make them. I would be more than happy to test a set for you.

My credentials
tantillus.org/Home.html
geometricobjectdepositiontool.blogspot.com/
forums.reprap.org/search.php?13, … _threads=0

I would like to test the new motor drivers. I have built two Reprap Prusa version 1 3D printers. I keep one at work and one at home. They are both power by Sanguinololu electronics. As far as credentials, I am self taught.

Thanks you for your considerarion.

Roy

Hello Ben,

I run a local hackerspace in Frankfurt/Main, where we tinker a lot with Arduino and RepRap related electronics.

Beside my Hackerspace acitvities i am preparing to start a Product Development Community called Manupool.

Hackerspace: hackerspace-ffm.de
Product development Community: manupool.de + Shop

It would be very kind if you could send me some samples to:

Hackerspace Ffm e.V.
c/o Marcus Link
Westerbachstraße 47 Haus 9
60489 Frankfurt
Germany

Thank you in advance.
Regards, Marcus

I would love to test your new board driver board.
My son and I have been involved in Reprap since 2007 and we have 5 printers.
I have a digital Scope, an analog scope, and a pc based scope.
along with bench power supplies, and a few meters.

my blog is

www.3dmaxbot.com
and my sons blog is
www.rep-up.com

Bruce Wattendorf

We do use RepRap electronics to power CNC routers (mandatory sample video: vimeo.com/52452694 ).

We just need a bit more juice than regular A4988 can give us. Maybe this new version will be juicy enough.

fightpc.blogspot.com

Having built two Prusas (i1 & 2), a Printrbot and now finishing a Prusa i3 too.

PM me for my address in case I qualify as beta-tester.

misan

I would actually love to try it out… I’ve been using the SN754410 driver… I rather not show you my photos of it YET but I am working on what I call Helper Bots. Bots that have a real purpose… If you look at my recent order with you guys, you’d see I bought 2 Alcohol Sensors w/Breakout Boards and that is one feature of my Bot and uses a Stepper Motor, actually 2 and the code to move both is as seen below (using AFMotor.h):

void doublestep (int steps, int direction, int style) {
  while (steps--) {
    myMotor.step(1, direction, style); 
    myMotor2.step(1, direction, style); 
  }
}

Now, because I did have 1 Motor left over (I bought an extra assuming it would be broken, thankfully it wasn’t!) OR I could buy one of the Motors you guys offer and make my project based on that (all Pololu parts). I did want to make a mini robot that waved it’s hands and sound off a mini Alarm using Motion Detection for when my Dog tries to come near my computer. I could document the whole thing and code as well as put a Powered by/Sponsored/Parts by and publish them (or you can put on your site too) but also record and upload the video to my tech channel… Just a thought :).

If you’d like to see the actual Sensor I bought working? Here’s the video:

Thanks for making this drivers available.
I would love to test them on my 3D printers. I currently have a repstrap running 2 Nema23 motors for the Y and Y axis and 3 Nema17 for the Z (2 motors) and the extruder. one modified Reprap Wallace running Nema17 and a Prusa i2 Running Nema17. Electronics used: RAMPS1.4 on the Wallace, Teensylu on the Prusa,
Mendelparts Gen6 on the Repstrap. A Ramps1.4 is available for the repstrap, but my current Pololu Driver modules do not provide enough current. Testing would be commenced on all three Printers, with most emphasis on the Repstrap.
I am registered at reprap.org with 429 posts in the forum so far.
Some Pistures of my Printers are availabel through my Flickr galleries at:
flickr.com/photos/58881701@N04/
I am located in Austria.

Thanks for developing this impressive stepper motor driver. My hobby is 3D printing and I like optimizing it to the limit in precission and speed. So I really like to test your new Pololu DRV8825, because it´s supplys more current and I really need this feature for my extruder. The additional 1/32 microstepping is also a good way to improve the accuracy of the axis!
If you choice me for testing, I will give yo a serious detailed feedback.

Greetings from Germany

I’d love to give them ago

I currently have a RepRap Huxley, and 4 Mendels to hand. Only the Huxley and one of the Mendels runs on a Ramps and can take the board. I’m an active member of core RepRap team and have worked with RepRaps every day for the past 4 years.

Cheers
Rhys

I’m working on a large-scale 3d printer (around 1000mm x 600mm x 500mm at this point) and was looking to making my own boards with some of STs stepper driver chips. These look like they may do just as well.

I have all the equipment and expertise to test stepper drivers and have even made a stepper driver tester to automatically test the earlier drivers.

My webpage and current pictures of my machine are at: ottersoft.ca/blog/?p=297

In total I would be interested in 10 devices. 4 to run my printer and 6 which I will use to test upper current limits and for other hopefully non-destructive and possibly some destructive tests.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for all of the responses!

lseidman and tsVestor, I appreciate your interest, but so far you have not really made as compelling of a case for samples as the others. Do you want to add anything to make a stronger argument, such as pictures of your 3D printers?

I have sent the rest of you emails about your sample requests.

- Ben

Hi,

is the offer still open?
I’m a mechatronics student in my fifth semester at the University of applied sciences Deggendorf, Germany. I’ve built five printers so far (Mendel, Prusa, Max, two 90s), two of which i’m in charge of operating and maintaining at my University. Of course, we have pretty much any equipment you can think of available for testing the driver board(s).
This is my newest build, my oversized and rock-solid Mendel90 that will eventually double as a light-duty CNC mill.
dl.dropbox.com/u/16628890/2012- … .13.39.jpg
dl.dropbox.com/u/16628890/2012- … .14.15.jpg
and my Google Plus page with a handful RepRap-related posts:
plus.google.com/101189457349966331973/posts

Best regards,
Thomas Sanladerer

Hi, Thomas.

I have sent you an email about your request.

- Ben

Hello,

Are boards for testing still available? I’d like to request stepper boards.

My recently finished Rostock 3D printer build is undergoing a revision of build UP in height and runs a RAMPS 1.4 with StepStick boards.

I’ve been building and learning for over a year and have two 3D printer designs in the works. I’d like to run your new boards on the present Rostock and then possibly place them into one of the two new 3D printer designs under development.

I’ve also been building an InMoov robot which is using a Pololu Maestro 18 for servos in the hands. The robot will be requring more motors for the arms/torso which would be a good use for the new Pololu boards. Hairygael, the robot developer, has graced me with recognition of my efforts building and presentatiing InMoov at the Pittsburgh Maker Faire 2012 on his blog: inmoov.blogspot.com/ See two separate posts on his blog page. Once in the middle then again at bottom.

My lab consists of:
Six 3D printers in various stages of operation - 4 FDM and 2 DLP printers. Scopes, irons, old drives, wave generators, proto-boards, wires, heaters, resins, and more parts for the next builds.

And there is another Pololu use in a Delta Robot test bed where a Micro Maestro 6 is operating.

Lastly, it would be fun to show off your boards at HackPittburgh when the printers and bots come out.

Best Regards,

Brian Stott
Pittsburgh, PA

I would be happy to test some out. I currently have a couple Sanguinololu boards, a couple Gen7 boards, each a different version and some of my own design. I am the developer of the Gen7T board and Sanguish board ( hope that doesn’t count against me :slight_smile:

I have an original Makerbot Cupcake and a gen1 Prusa Mendel to test on. In addition I am working on a couple other designs of my own. I also have a large assortment of Nema 17 and 21 motors both new and surplus on which to test.

I have a fairly well stocked electronics workshop including an analog oscilloscope, multi-meters, signal generators, and circuit board etching equipment.

In addition I am currently running the Race to the Bottom contest. If you decide to provide a set of four I will add them to the prize pool after testing them myself, so you would get two testers for the price of one.

Bryan

Hello.

Ben is currently out of the office, and will likely be able to get back to you next week about these samples.

I’m developer, maintainer and one of the distributors of RepRap Generation 7 Electronics and would be interested in checking this carrier for compatibility. One or two boards would be sufficient as I have no doubt a A4983-based driver on one axis continues to work while another axis is equipped with the new solution.

My email is mah@jump-ing.de .

First impressions of the driver in my blog: http://fightpc.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/driver-update.html

Happy camper here.

Good morning

I’m from South Africa and have two active development projects where I see this product as fitting in nicely, so would like to request a few samples.

  1. OpenHardware.co.za is in the process of developing a ARM based Desktop CNC Controller running on Freescale Cortex M4 CPUs. This will fit in nicely and the modularity will make it easier to swop out if something goes wrong. Also, the CNC must be able to mill PCBs, so the 1/32 microstep was a big wishlist item which now seems easy to achieve!

  2. We would like to test these with our involvement in SARSA (South African Space Research Association) as a suitable stepper driver for their robotics projects

  3. We are working on a MarulaPrint 3D printer controller (Atmel AVRs based) - where the 1/32 microstep can be a very good advantage as well. These currently run Pololu 1182 Stepper carriers, so would be good to see how the equavilent swop would be

Some of my work:
www.openhardware.co.za - would like to add a few Pololu items to the store soon, will contact your distribution department to start the ball rolling.
www.itux.co.za - regular blog about the hacking stuff we do
www.house4hack.co.za - blog about the 3D printers, and if you go back a few pages the CNC projects
I am also active on the Reprap forums and Wiki as “peter6960”

Many thanks, and holding thumbs. Can’t wait to test and blog about these!
Regards

Peter