Trinamic Motor Driver: http://youtu.be/CZOV0BdgSiU
Initial impressions: Amazing driver! There are some quirks though that I’ve experienced. Motor driver direction is inverted from the Panucatt drivers we use currently. Also, the potentiometer is backwards (to me) clockwise turns vref down, ccw turns it up.
These are just initial impressions. I will mention more about them after I’ve got some testing done.
“Google Plus Community Group”…jeez, I’m an idiot. Guess I was nervous.
Is there any public info about these drivers yet? This is the first I’ve heard of them.
Is that their Cool Step technology? I found a YouTube video of one of their guys demoing the tech http://youtu.be/vZvVKtPC0CY smart current monitoring, send what’s needed to make the stepper move but no more. No wonder it’s so much quieter. What do these plug into? If RAMPS1.4 I’d love a set to get the noise down.
Is this with step interpolation enabled? Or is it just stealthchop or something?
@Rob_Giseburt http://www.trinamic.com/products/integrated-circuits/stepper-power-driver/tmc2100 (the Watterott board is almost exactly the BOB reference design)
@Mark_MARKSE_Emery these drivers do so much more than the Allegro ones. CoolStep is one of the features (reducing heat output), the other big ones are stealthChop (the silent, interpolated mode) and spreadCycle (a smart “normal” mode). Each of these features has some drawbacks elsewhere (i.e. stealthChop works best for low speeds and accelerations), but spreadCycle could be really interesting for general 3D use.
Review coming in next week!
@Tom_Carson this is with StealthChop enabled. I’ve gotta try the other modes. We were having some skipping issues that may or may not be related to overheating the driver - I won’t even pretend it’s the driver that’s at fault, I should probably just be using a different configuration on the driver.
It was quiet enough that I actually started hearing the wheels rolling on the aluminum and could hear other things going on. (I think I covered up the mic accidentally on the first printer homing about half way up)
who is making / beta’ing the carrier boards (not just the chip)? Very interested in buying some.
@Watterott_electronic , but they don’t have many left. They’re doing a rev on the board right now and taking feedback into account. I think they stated that they’re a month or two away from having a good stock of them. After some testing, I can pass my boards along if someone wants to evaluate them (not just keep them)
Reversing the potentiometer is a matter of PCB routing, reversing the two pins of the potentiometer.
Reversing the direction can also be fixed with PCB routing, though they’re higher-current channels that may be harder to work with. I noticed just recently that the order of pins coming out of a Pololu-style driver is 1B 1A 2A 2B instead of the 1A 1B 2A 2B that I would have expected, which would effectively reverse the direction of rotation.
Reversing the direction should be a software problem. In TinyG it’s configured per motor.
@Rob_Giseburt Yes, it can be done in software, but for the hardware to be compatible as a drop-in replacement, you shouldn’t have to reverse the directions of all of the motors in software (in Marlin, this requires a re-compile) when you swap the part in.
It can also be reversed by reversing the stepper’s connector, if it’s not keyed.
Off topic: What are the tags? QC?
Not only that, but when you’re making a product and you want to upgrade but still maintain support for all other versions, and you’ve gotta tell everyone to re-key their connectors, or keep two different versions of the firmware around, it’s a pain in the dick. Moreso than just fixing the pinout in the first place.
@ThantiK thanks for posting this video! I have been curious about how quiet these sticks truly made the system. It’s amazing.
@Thomas_Sanladerer I have really been looking forward to this review. I’m sure, as you usually do, you will break down all modes with the associated positives and negatives.
This could be one of the better upgrades to machines available.
@Shai_Schechter , yes - QC. Red tags are machines that have a fault (high frequency wobble on 6-tower test, etc) that haven’t been retested after the fix applied yet. Yellow is undergoing 2-days break-in testing, blue is done with testing ready for boxing.
Are this on boards that plug in to a RAMPS board? If so, I’d like to test them. How is the mode specified?
yup Justin need adjust firmware for microstep…notting more… complete datasheet are:
http://www.trinamic.com/_scripts/download.php?file=_articles%2Fproducts%2Fintegrated-circuits%2Ftmc2100%2F_datasheet%2FTMC2100-LA_datasheet.pdf
but silence is not only unique feature…read datasheet…silence is fast notable for all but i think is great stepper drive…hope to try it soon.
I can’t believe how quiet that was… Will definitely swap out the old drivers when these become available. Wife approved stepper drivers :D.
I wish I could get that on a modified RAMBO or Smoothieboard. I may go with a RUMBA or RAMPS to play with these.
After some additional testing, I’m concerned about speeds on these or maybe it’s high frequency direction switching. I can’t tell yet.
Our machines are almost completely friction free, using V wheels, and MakerSlide. But I keep getting a skip on quick Z lifts for some reason. 