MKS Base v1.4 w/ external stepper driver

Hello, My question is pretty straight forward but having trouble finding any solid info anywhere through searching... I have a MKS Base 1.4 with the integrated stepper drivers. I have found reference to being able to use external drivers via the 4 broken out pins directly under the stepper motor plugs on the board but I have only found info for this on the SBASE.... The Base however has the same 4 pins (i believe they are the same) so I am curious if you were able to use external driver here in the same way? If so, is it possible to use something with an SPI interface like the 2130s? I would imagine so considering the extra pins connect to the aux pins. But I guess dont need to worry about that until knowing if it is even possible to use the external drivers at all. Thanks for any info and if anyone has any more info or links to info on how to carry any of this out it would be much appreciated.

These 4 pins are just parallel to the onboard-drivers step,dir,enable and gnd pins, so you can't repurpose them by firmware to add a SPI port with them ( maybe other unused pins ?)
You can use them with external drivers that don't need SPI.

Im going to save myself 2000 words, by posting pictures!




NB you need to enable SPI mode on some of these devices... As they come configured in dumb mode as a drop in replacement
See [github.com] for how to set the configuration.

Stolen from [www.reddit.com]

With integrated steppers it much harder. you going to have to move the enable,step and direction for each stepper onto a new unused pin.
Then you going to have to get some sort of external drivers boards and wire it all up.

Its should be possible, presuming you don't run out of IO pins. (a quick count shows about 10 free IO's on various expansion ports, enough for 3 axis..)

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2018 11:52AM by Dust.

Thank you very much for the response and for the info. Unfortunately this is the wrong board. With the board that you are referencing is very simple straightforward​ process... Just plug them in as you can see in the pictures you posted. The picture that you posted is a MKS Gen v1.4, the one that I'm asking about is a MKS Base v1.4. both are Atmega 2560 and based on ramps, but the Gen is ready to accept Pololu configuration stepper drivers. I will check the links you left though in case any useful info there. Thanks again.

Quote
Dust
Im going to save myself 2000 words, by posting pictures!

ZeXUWlj.jpg

fmfCx1z.jpg

NB you need to enable SPI mode on some of these devices... As they come configured in dumb mode as a drop in replacement
See [github.com] for how to set the configuration.

Stolen from [www.reddit.com]

With integrated steppers it much harder. you going to have to move the enable,step and direction for each stepper onto a new unused pin.
Then you going to have to get some sort of external drivers boards and wire it all up.

Its should be possible, presuming you don't run out of IO pins. (a quick count shows about 10 free IO's on various expansion ports, enough for 3 axis..)

I don't need to repurpose them into SPI because the SPI connections are already broken out at the AUX pins. But that is good to know, because this means I should be able to follow any information describing the process for a SBase board and should be the same except for in firmware.

Quote
o_lampe
These 4 pins are just parallel to the onboard-drivers step,dir,enable and gnd pins, so you can't repurpose them by firmware to add a SPI port with them ( maybe other unused pins ?)
You can use them with external drivers that don't need SPI.

Quote
Dust
Im going to save myself 2000 words, by posting pictures!

ZeXUWlj.jpg

fmfCx1z.jpg

NB you need to enable SPI mode on some of these devices... As they come configured in dumb mode as a drop in replacement
See [github.com] for how to set the configuration.

Stolen from [www.reddit.com]

With integrated steppers it much harder. you going to have to move the enable,step and direction for each stepper onto a new unused pin.
Then you going to have to get some sort of external drivers boards and wire it all up.

Its should be possible, presuming you don't run out of IO pins. (a quick count shows about 10 free IO's on various expansion ports, enough for 3 axis..)

I don't know if you edited your post or if I just was too tired the first time I read it but it makes much more sense now. I think I was thinking that you were talking about reassigning the SPI pins rather than the stpns dir pins.
So the four pins which are broken out under the integrated drivers are just going to be 1A1B2A2B is that correct? I have recieved my 2130s from filastruder but I'm considering just to wait now because I already have a mks gen1.4 on the way and also a black widow. Base board is getting dumped! Thanks again and sorry didn't understand the first time.