STEPPER MOTOR DRIVER MODULE

This breakout board for Allegro’s A4988 micro-stepping bipolar stepper motor driver features adjustable current limiting, over-current and over-temperature protection, and five different micro-step resolutions (down to 1/16-step). It operates from 8 V to 35 V and can deliver up to approximately 1 A per phase without a heat sink or forced air flow (it is rated for 2 A per coil with sufficient additional cooling). This board ships with 0.1″ male header pins included but not soldered in.

In the micro-step operation, A4988 chopping control automatically selects the current decay mode (Slow or Mixed). In mixed decay mode, the device is initially set to a fixed downtime in some fast decay, then the rest of the slow decay downtime. Mixed decay current control scheme results in reduced audible motor noise, increased step accuracy, and reduced power consumption. Internal synchronous rectification control circuitry is provided to improve the pulse-width modulation (PWM) operation power consumption. Internal circuit protection includes: thermal shutdown with hysteresis, undervoltage lockout (UVLO), and crossover-current protection.

A4988 surface mount QFN package (ES), a size of 5 mm × 5 mm, nominal overall package height of 0.90 mm, with an exposed pad for enhanced thermal dissipation. This package is Pb (suffix-T), with 100% matte tin lead frame plating.

• Simple step and direction control interface
• Five different step resolutions: full-step, half-step, quarter-step, eighth-step, and sixteenth-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)
• Over-temperature thermal shutdown, under-voltage lockout, and crossover-current protection
• Short-to-ground and shorted-load protection
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