Wiring Gen 2 electronics

Previously I had my Gen 2 stepper drivers wired up to yous the Sync Enable pins on the boards. The wiring diagram used to say these were to be used. Now I look at the Arduino code and it doesn't use them and the wiring diagram doesn't have them included anymore either.

Are these used at all in any versions of the software/firmware? Can I get conflicts by having different versions of the host running with different versions of the firmware because of this? I'm rewiring things and need to know under what circumstances these need to be connected.

Thanks
Demented

are you kidding me? No answer in a couple of days? Does no one know!?

Demented

Demented Chihuahua Wrote:
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> are you kidding me? No answer in a couple of days?
> Does no one know!?
>
Too complicated! Made own board instead!

wow...thanks forest. :-) You've been such a help to me here.

Zach!!! Where are you!? Help me! Forest is picking on me!

Demented

Demented,
The sync lines in the gen 2 electronics are nothing to do with the sync lines on gen 1 and do not influence the firmware.

Gen1: the Bresenham algorithm was split between three PICs. The one doing the most steps becomes the master and the others are slaves who get their timing from the sync lines. Crazy scheme IMHO!

Gen2: The sync lines can be used to synchronise the chopper drives so that they all switch together. I.e. one board can be set up to be a master and the other two slaves. I don't think this mode is used, i.e. all boards are set up as masters and no sync connections. It doesn't affect the firmware and I expect very little effect on the motion. It might make less audible noise by cutting beat frequencies but I think Zach does not recommend its use.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2008 05:08AM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

The sync connection between the stepper boards is purely a hardware thing. The purpose is to make all the chopper drives switch at the same time.

There are two components to the chopper drive, the switch transistor and a current sensor. The current sensor is a piece of sensitive analogue electronics. The chopper drive switch generates quantities of electrical noise. There is a danger that the noise generated when one of the other boards switches will interfere with the current sensor. Keeping all the boards in sync prevents this.

My task for this weekend is to connect up all my the stepper drives to the motors and try them out.

Alvin