Hello to all, and "Newbie Alert"
First I wanted to thank those who established this forum, and those who continue to contribute their expertise to answering questions for those less knowledgeable.
In the days of the dinosaurs (Imsai, Bill Godbout 64K memory boards, and Mike Quinn Electronics at the Oakland Airport - but you are all too young to be familiar with that history) I was an electronic hobbyist, but fell away from it until a few months ago - I've missed it greatly and am having a blast.
I'm building a lame project using two stepper motors that will make the Travelocity Gnome pop up above a fence, look around and then hide again.
I've puchased quite a few steppers to play with, and am using three stepper drivers to learn from (Easydriver, Big Easy Driver and the Interinar BSD-02). The hookup and programming (Arduino) of power, motor, ground, step and direction were pretty straight forward.
After playing for a while, I noted that the stepper motor and the driver chip would get quite hot (up to 120° with an IR laser thermometer), and thought that if I used a relay on the power to the driver, it might help, and it clearly did.
But then...I noted a little connection called "Enable" on all three drivers, and my world changed!
I don't need the relay anymore! Hooray!
But now I'm stuck - there are two other connections I'd like to become expert on, but am unclear regarding their relative utility - Reset and Sleep.
The relevant chips are the Allegro 3967, 4983 and 3979.
My questions for those kind experts are:
1. What is the purpose of "Reset" if there is nothing really "stored" on the chip? I suppose it could reset the M1, M2, M3 controllers, but not much else.
2. What is the difference between "sleep" and "enable"? When should I use one over the other?
I thank you very kindly in advance.
SPQR
Mod note: I searched the forums and couldn't find any other question close to this. And if this is the wrong forum, please let me know. Thanks
First I wanted to thank those who established this forum, and those who continue to contribute their expertise to answering questions for those less knowledgeable.
In the days of the dinosaurs (Imsai, Bill Godbout 64K memory boards, and Mike Quinn Electronics at the Oakland Airport - but you are all too young to be familiar with that history) I was an electronic hobbyist, but fell away from it until a few months ago - I've missed it greatly and am having a blast.
I'm building a lame project using two stepper motors that will make the Travelocity Gnome pop up above a fence, look around and then hide again.
I've puchased quite a few steppers to play with, and am using three stepper drivers to learn from (Easydriver, Big Easy Driver and the Interinar BSD-02). The hookup and programming (Arduino) of power, motor, ground, step and direction were pretty straight forward.
After playing for a while, I noted that the stepper motor and the driver chip would get quite hot (up to 120° with an IR laser thermometer), and thought that if I used a relay on the power to the driver, it might help, and it clearly did.
But then...I noted a little connection called "Enable" on all three drivers, and my world changed!
I don't need the relay anymore! Hooray!
But now I'm stuck - there are two other connections I'd like to become expert on, but am unclear regarding their relative utility - Reset and Sleep.
The relevant chips are the Allegro 3967, 4983 and 3979.
My questions for those kind experts are:
1. What is the purpose of "Reset" if there is nothing really "stored" on the chip? I suppose it could reset the M1, M2, M3 controllers, but not much else.
2. What is the difference between "sleep" and "enable"? When should I use one over the other?
I thank you very kindly in advance.
SPQR
Mod note: I searched the forums and couldn't find any other question close to this. And if this is the wrong forum, please let me know. Thanks
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