If anyone else was waiting on SilentStepSticks to come back into stock at Watterott

3D Printing
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If anyone else was waiting on SilentStepSticks to come back into stock at Watterott get ordering before they’ve all gone again!! 391 left and counting…
http://www.watterott.com/index.php?page=product&info=4107&xcb194=2f63191a8f31a8de74fdafb11410959a

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I carry these at Filastruder as well if you’re in the US: http://www.filastruder.com/products/silentstepstick-tmc2100-stepper-motor-driver

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I want smoothieware and I want silent step sticks. What should I do? :frowning:

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Wow, 112 sold already, down to 279! @Dat_Chu have you looked into the pinouts? The Smoothieboard will allow external drivers, though you’d need some intermediate wiring.

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@Tim_Elmore1 , holy crap! I wish I would have known sooner - I was impressed enough by the beta drivers, but they weren’t built quite well enough for production. I wanted to test out the new ones but wasn’t going to front $80 for 4 boards. (Shipping was astronomical)

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@ThantiK I just dropped the price a bit, 4 boards should be $50 shipped. :smiley:

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Thanks @Tim_Elmore1 , got me some :smiley:

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Smoothieboard had step/dir/en header pins for each axis, so you could patch them over to a carrier that holds the Watterott boards.

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256 microsteps. Wondering how this would lower the max printspeed when using Ramps and 1.2Amps seems also quite low compared to DRV8825 from TI

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The chip does internal interpolation to scale it from 1/16 to 1/256. beyond 1/16 for actual control is questionable, but for reducing harmonics, can be quite nice.

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I think you’d be mad to try printing with that many microsteps having read http://www.micromo.com/microstepping-myths-and-realities

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@Mark_MARKSE_Emery , you may be misinterpreting the data at that URL. You don’t lose any torque by using a higher microstepping value. You simply ramp up the torque value until you’ve reached enough of it that your motor begins moving.

That pretty graph, just shows you how much torque (up to your rated value) you get per microstep. Adding up to the full value the closer you get to a full step. It makes perfect sense that you halve that value as you double your microstepping ability.

We’re already way beyond the plastics ability to position accurately, higher microsteps greatly reduces machine noise.

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I think I get you. High microsteps gets us closer to a smooth curve, so taking off the sharp edges to the signal that cause the whine? How far would you push it past 16 or 32?

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@ThantiK is correct, as usual. There is absolutely zero downside to using an interpolated 256 microsteps as opposed to a pure 16 microsteps. The available torque at identical shaft positions is identical in both scenarios.

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@Mark_MARKSE_Emery , at some point or another - you start to reach a timing limit/switching limit. As long as you’ve got a microcontroller, or a dedicated IC like this that interpolates the steps, I’d simply balance it with cost/value analysis. If I get 1024 microsteps, but it costs me $10,000 - I’m not gonna touch it. Likewise, if I can’t keep up the step rate for that high value, I’d leave it alone too.