New SSS Driver (TMC2130)

[ataraxis 51]

Hey everyone!

Stephan Watterott, the CEO of Watterott electronic (producer of the SilentStepStick drivers) told me last week that a new stepper driver will be released within the next month. The driver fits the Pololu A4988 pinout and comes with an TMC2130 - which supports the stallGuard2 functions!

I can't wait to try that feature

EDIT 2016-03-08:

Here we go!

EDIT 2016-03-08:

At first I tried the "standalone"-configuration, to do so you have to solder a short on the little solder-jumper

(SPI_MODE-Pin to GND). Works similar to the TMC2100 SSS:

You don't need a Microcontroller this way, you can set the microsteps via the Levels on the cfg Pins, just as at the older SSS.

The downside is, you cannot read out or set the registers of the driver (e.g. for the stallguard2 Feature)

EDIT 2016-03-10:

Today I tried the StallGuard2. You can see a very short Video here:

 

EDIT

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by Guest

[skinnyChicken 1]

any chance this will fit into the UM2 ?

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

any chance this will fit into the UM2 ?

 

Not without resoldering the driver chip itself I guess...

[drayson 74]

And what about UMO ??

:-)

[ataraxis 51]

And what about UMO ??

:-)

 

it fit's the A4988 pin layout, therefore: yes!

the biggest difference compared to the SSS drivers is the TMC2130 chip (instead of the TMC2100).

Edited September 24, 2015 by Guest

[drayson 74]

:-) thanks for clarification !

[ataraxis 51]

yes i know,... today is everything but "soon"

Anyhow, Mr. Watterott will send a TMC 2130-stepstick prototype withing the next days - stay tuned!

Edited March 4, 2016 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

update, see first post

Edited March 8, 2016 by Guest

[drayson 74]

Hohooo... looks great!

curiouse about the performance - hope I decided no too early to switch to the already available SSS.

Please do ma a favor and test them on E1 too... :-)

[ataraxis 51]

Update! (see first post)

[ataraxis 51]

Those drivers are crazy, unbelievable - I mean... there is a register for nearly everything. And, even if you don't need it, those drivers support up to 256 native (real!) microsteps per full step and also interpolation to 256. everything works easy with SPI.

Only "downside" is that you need a Microcontroller to set it up and use the extra functions - if you don't use the standalone configuration.

[ataraxis 51]

StallGuard-Test:

 

[neotko 1,417]

That's way too nice ºoº

[ataraxis 51]

Indicator:

 

I will install it on the extruder within the next days. I think it is most useful there. As an Indicator I am going to use an RGB-Led instead of a striplight I think.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

Looks like i damaged both drivers today when I tried to install them on the Ultimaker. No updates until i fixed them (or bought new ones).

Edited March 13, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

Ouch :( !

[ataraxis 51]

To everyone else: Read the FAQ before you install them (you can order them in 1-2 weeks according to Mr. Watterott)...

This is why mine blew up:

https://github.com/watterott/SilentStepStick/blob/master/docu/FAQ.md#what-to-consider-when-turning-the-power-supply-on-or-off

Edited March 14, 2016 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

Looks like they still work - I don't know why they didn't yesterday, but today I tried to control them with an BusPirate (a little device for the PC) and they did what I told them

There are so f*** much settings, I feel a bit lost... but I stumbled across one which is called "shaft", guess what it is: "invert axis" - yay!!!

The driver is running on my Ultimaker now. It's still uncomfortable because I have to set the driver up everytime I power up the machine. I will play around with all those settings now. After that, we should think about better solution (maybe an external microcontroller, which would be easy, or - if there are enough pins left, we could also use the already existing).

cheers and good night!

[ataraxis 51]

it works.

Lets play a bit with the stallguard feature now

Edited March 15, 2016 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

The TMC2130 offers two DIAG output (DIAG0 and DIAG1). You can set those two Outputs to signal errors in realtime to the microcontroller.

On the stepstick, you can access them via the pins/holes on the middle of the drivers:

Today I tested some of the DIAG settings, especially the one for stallguard2. The Diag-Ouputs are interesting because it is easy to make the Ultimaker stop or pause or whatsoever if an external signal (e.g. the DIAG1 signal) comes HIGH/LOW.

That means, using the Diag-outputs, the Ultimaker is able to stop/pause if the driver overheats, the extruder loses steps, the printhead crashes agains the frame, ...

---

If you want to test it yourself, here is the setup I used for teraterm, buspirate (spi mode), the driver and the logic analyzer:

 

; setup4diag1.tllconnect '/C=3 /BAUD=115200'settitle 'Connected to BusPirate'mtimeout = 500sendlnwait '>'sendln 'm'wait '>'sendln '5'wait '>'sendln '1'wait '>'sendln '2'wait '>'sendln '1'wait '>'sendln '1'wait '>'sendln '2'wait '>'sendln '2'wait '>';TCOOLTHRSsendln '[0x94 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff]'wait '>'; DIAG, Irefsendln '[0x80 0x00 0x00 0x21 0x11]'wait '>'; IRUN, IHOLDsendln '[0x90 0x00 0x00 0x10 0x10]'wait '>'; Chopconf: Microstepssendln '[0xec 0x05 0x00 0x80 0x08]'wait '>'; Coolconf: SG2 Threshold; driver is installed on z-axis.sendln '[0xed 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00]'

 

Wiring:

(make sure that all the GND's are connected somehow)

Edited March 23, 2016 by Guest

[ataraxis 51]

Guys, what kind of application should we test first?

1) Auto Bed Leveling

2) Emergency ShutDown

3) Lost Step/Load Indicator (Extruder) - my favourite

4) no filament detection (zero load)

5) other suggestions?

Edited March 24, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

3 ^o^

[Nasimovy 1]

no filament detection, nice work

[drayson 74]

What about Auto Bed Level.... no. just kidding... we have UM's so who needs... :-)

I would be very interested in 3 and 4

[ataraxis 51]

good news, there is already a library for a very similar tmc driver (tmc26x) and guess what? marlin already supports it!

https://github.com/interactive-matter/TMC26XStepper/