Circuit for TMC2660 steppers (request for double-check)

Hey all,

I've been interested in Trinamic's TMC2660 stepper drivers. They are high power, high resolution, have some handy features, and generally I'd like to play around with them on a printer.

Currently there's a board that integrates at TMC260 chip (a slightly lower-power version), but it's an arduino shield form factor for only one stepper, which is ungainly (check it out here). So, to practice my circuit layout skills, I've made a board to try it out. It puts four stepper controllers on the board, with a big connector for the SPI and all the step enable etc. signals. This would let me connect it to my current setup (a hacky smoothieboard derivative) without making a whole new board. I've looked through all the documents and I think it would work properly, but if anyone would like to check it over and tell me if there are any obvious issues, I'd appreciate it greatly.

It still could use some polishing on the silkscreen, as well as a decent BOM and probably a more clear README. To forestall some probable comments: 1.) I'm a mechanical engineer and don't really know what I'm doing, so point it out kindly if I did something stupid and 2.) yes, these drivers are super overkill, but I want to play with them anyway.

Thanks in advance!
Chris

Hi TopherMan,

I was wondering if you were able to test your board...I am really interested in your results. I am trying to use driver TMC2660 along with controller TMC429. The application I have is not actually a printer, but something similar to what you have done may be very useful...

Your board looks great...

Thanks

Unfortunately, no. Right after I finished planning this, my PhD moved to an accelerated schedule, and I got a job, so my printer and related projects have been on hold for the last few months. Hopefully in the new year I'll get back to it, but if you try the chip out, let me know how it goes.

Hi TropherMan,

seems, we had the same project. :-)
We tested the TMC2660 in our DICE-TMC board and got cool results.
Now they work with Arduino Mega and DUE (DUE only prototype state) and at the moment we are working on the software for raspberry pi.
The chip is great! Amazing set of features and all kinds of measurement and detection for bipolar stepper motors.
Overkill? It's delicious!

Cognac

It looks a nice chip in some ways, for example the high output current and high microstepping capability. However, driving it will take some thought. In step/dir mode, as far as I can see there is no way to adjust the current, except by changing the value of the sense resistors. This is unacceptable in a printer electronics design intended for different types of stepper motor. So it will be necessary to use the SPI mode instead. This requires the microcontroller to maintain the sine tables itself, and for each microstep it will need to do a table lookup and send a 20-bit control word through the SPI interface. Not a big problem for a 32-bit microcontroller, although the number of microsteps used may have to be reduced at high speeds.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

The setup isn't tricky with the suitable code.
Domonoky implemented a first bunch of functions for marlin.
Check the codebase!

It's in a early state... Do not bother to complain. ;-)

Quote
dc42
In step/dir mode, as far as I can see there is no way to adjust the current, except by changing the value of the sense resistors.

A combination of SPI and Step/Dir should be possible. So configuring StallGuard and CoolStep using SPI and then doing the Steps using Step/Dir lines.

The SPI configuration should adjust the current, right?