This is a breakout board for TI’s DRV8834 microstepping bipolar stepper motor driver. It has a pinout and interface that are nearly identical to those of our A4988 carriers, so it can be used as a drop-in replacement for those boards in many applications. The DRV8834 operates from 2.5–10.8 V, allowing stepper motors to be powered with voltages that are too low for other drivers, and can deliver up to approximately 1.5 A per phase continuously without a heat sink or forced air flow (up to 2 A peak). It features adjustable current limiting, overcurrent and overtemperature protection, and six microstep resolutions (down to 1/32-step). This board ships with 0.1″ male header pins included but not soldered in.
This product is a carrier board or breakout board for TI’s DRV8834 low-voltage stepper motor driver; we therefore recommend careful reading of the DRV8834 datasheet before using this product. This stepper motor driver lets you control one bipolar stepper motor at up to 2 A output current per coil (see the Power Dissipation Considerations section below for more information). Here are some of the driver’s key features:
- Simple step and direction control interface
- Six different step resolutions: full-step, half-step, 1/4-step, 1/8-step, 1/16-step, and 1/32-step
- Adjustable current control lets you set the maximum current output with a potentiometer, which lets you use voltages above your stepper motor’s rated voltage to achieve higher step rates
- Intelligent chopping control that automatically selects the correct current decay mode (fast decay or slow decay)
- 2.5-10.8 V supply voltage range
- Built-in regulator (no external logic voltage supply needed)
- Can interface directly with 3.3 V and 5 V systems
- Over-temperature thermal shutdown, over-current shutdown, and under-voltage lockout
- Short-to-ground, short-to-supply, and shorted-load protection
- 4-layer, 2 oz copper PCB for improved heat dissipation
- Exposed solderable ground pad below the driver IC on the bottom of the PCB
More technical information at Pololu.
