Stepper Jumper Motor Setup
The 6 Pack controller attempts to support as many types of stepper motor drivers as possible. It supports standard StepStick (Pololu) style motors, Trinamic SPI motors and external motor drivers.
There are a few jumpers you need to set to deal with the different ways the various drivers use the control pins and the voltages they need. The jumpers set some common things across all sockets, so you are somewhat limited in the ability to mix driver types. Check the jumper settings below to see if you can mix the drivers you want.
Note: There is more detailed information on each driver type on the Wiki.
- Standard StepStick
- Trinamic SPI
- External
This jumper is located in the center of the controller. It sets the voltage of the signals going to the drivers. It also sets the voltage going to the I2SO(xx) pins of CNC I/O Module #5.
- Standard StepStick Drivers These can generally use 3.3V or 5V.
- Trinamic SPI drivers These must be set to 3.3V. The drivers send SPI data and optionally stallguard signals back to the ESP32, which requires 3.3V.
- External Drivers These generally use opto isolators that are setup for 5V use. Some will work at 3.3V, but use 5V for best reliability.
This either routes SPI data or microstep level signals to the stepper driver sockets. Note: The MS pins hardwire the drivers to the highest microstep level.
- Trinamic SPI Drivers Place all jumpers in the SPI position
- All Others Place all jumpers in the MS position. Note: This places the microstepping at the highest value. See this page for more information on this.
There is a TMC5160 jumper in the lower left corner of the controller.
- Trinamic TMC5160 Drivers Place jumper in the TMC5160 position (lower)
- All Others Place the jumper in the Default position (upper)