What is DRV8825 driver?

I'm looking to purchase Megatronics 2.0 board and I was going through this page (http://reprap.org/wiki/Megatronics_2.0).
I saw a part about using DRV8825 driver for my step motors but I have no idea what they are!
I could not find anything online so please tell me what it is, what does it do and does it worth buying?
Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2013 07:22PM by bardiaesm.

ok so basically you need to have drivers for each axis and each extruder, the driver is a chip that runs the stepper motor. there are two reprap compatible drivers, the 4988 or whatever and drv8825. the drv8825 is better because it allows for a higher amperage motor, but ive heard the 4988 can actually step at a higher rate, theoretically, not that you could acheive that rate with a loaded motor anyways. also the drv8825 has 32 microstepping.

microstepping is like adding more steps in between each step.

Thanks for your answer @aduy,
So do you have to have that kind of driver in order for the step motors to work, or does the board already come with working drivers?

You can use 4988 drivers or drv8825 drivers but you will need one or the other for the board to work.

My board has slots so you can plug in the driver externally, however there are some boards that have them built in.

Go to pololu.com and look at their stepper drivers. You will see both kinds there and can compare for yourself.

the main difference between A4988 and DRV8825 is that DRV8825 can do higher amps, as well as 1/32 micro stepping, A4988 can only do 1.5A and 1/16 micro stepping

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