Has anyone ever looked at these (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPvTB3irCxQ&app=desktop)? I’m thinking of trying these out on the x/y axis of my mp3dp.
I have some I can say there is an insane number of adjustments you can make to them in the firmware. If you don’t like doing a ton of research on the settings you might want to stick with the regular ones. Hopefully there will be a good simplified guide somewhere soon.
Don’t get me wrong you can set the steps and power and they will work but there are so many other settings you have to wonder if default is best…
I just ordered some (hopefully for my MP3DP2). I might use them in my low rider instead, if I feel like it. I am one of those people that likes to try every setting, and come up with biased opinions on them :). I ordered some from aliexpress (along with a knock off 3D Touch!).
I’m skeptical that they will perform better, especially since the hybrid features will change the behavior at higher speeds, but in reality, the most stressful CNC movements are at lower speeds, when it’s cutting, not at higher speeds. IDK. Maybe it will handle things better with less current, or be easier to cool… The silent thing really doesn’t matter, and I don’t think the 1/256 steps matters either. Lots of unknowns.
The one feature that could be very neat is that they can detect when they are about to skip a step. The 3D printerers are using that for endstops, but if we could somehow pause the job, that would be pretty slick. Wiring it into the pause button, perhaps? It would be significantly more work for it to raise the tool, turn off the spindle, and call my cell phone, but at least stopping cutting would be super useful. Then maybe you could figure out where it failed, and come up with a new strategy, or even maybe rehome, and restart the job…
I know they have an option for a lower resting / locked amperage, I am almost sure you can temporarily boost the amperage when getting close to a stall situation.
Marlin 2 is still adding features for these drivers. There is a ton of them. I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to carry these.
If you can offer them cheaper than filastruder, I think you’ll get a lot of business in the US market. I seem to see them everywhere.
I’m running them in my record lathe overhead. It’s entirely for the silent step feature and it does silence the steppers incredibly well, there is some loss of power at higher speeds but it doesn’t bother me.
I think you might be on the money in regards to being easier to cool though, I believe they flipped the chip so the heatsink sits on the underside of the board, it’s intended to make the heatsink draw heat away faster?
I remember setup was a little more complex than a usual stepper driver and I think there are a couple of pins you do need to activate.
1 Like
The soldering is funky, because the spi needs to be redirected. I wonder what the motivation was for not either making another header for those pins, or just making a mini-rambo like board with the drivers built in, and wired for SPI. I’m guessing the cheapo ones I ordered via the slow boat will have the headers already installed (that’s what was in their picture). I hope not, but I have the gear to remove them.
I’m using these on an itopie I cut with the mpcnc. To be honest, the settings aren’t all that complex once you start digging in. But it does require extra wiring and soldering. Also a few pin re-assignments if you want to continue using your LCD on the ramps 1.4.
I think the mpcnc would benefit from these if we can also set up the auto squaring since these have the sensoreless homing option!
They will be an option very soon.
I’ve been following this driver for a while. Looks interesting. Do you think 1/256 steps will result in noticeably improved prints? I really don’t care about the reduced noise, but if prints came out smoother it would be worth it.
No, even at 32nd and 16th stepping it is far beyond any detail we could ever need. What do you mean by smoother? 32nd is 200steps per mm X and Y is 0.005mm/step 16th would be 0.01mm.
Is the pin assignment documented anywhere for use with the LCD?
I don’t think it’s analog to the microstepping done by the 8825s. I think it’s more like smoother steps, so more of a ramped start and stop, but not higher resolution. I doubt your drivers are the limiting factor though. I don’t think you’ll see a quality improvement.
The endstop thing is cool. The reports are that they are a little more strength for the same current somehow… Maybe it’s not as optimistic on specs… Really, I’m going to try them because I like the idea that there drivers are smarter. I would really like it if the motion planner talked more that just direction and steps to them but…
Yeah I am watching as they drop in more and more features for these right now into marlin. It is actively being developed right now by a few dev’s!
I’m wondering how to wire these with an LCD on the ramps as well. Anyone have any ideas or documentation?
This thread looks promising, https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/7j59r1/tmc2130_spi_with_ramps_14_and_lcd_display/
D’oh!
I’ve been messing with the FYSETC.com chinese versions of these. The stall guard wasn’t working (the endstop part) and I was getting very frustrated. I just have a board wired up on my desk. It’s also super annoying because I just have a loose motor, so I hit home, then grab the axle to stop it…
Anyway, something is broken in 1.1.8. I did the same thing in 1.1.7 (literally git stash; git checkout 1.1.7; git stash pop), and it’s working fine. Just an FYI. I plan on doing a more in depth post, with links to things I’ve found helpful, but not really a full tutorial soon, but I want to actually get them on a printer first.
OK, I’m an idiot, pretend I didn’t say that. They do indeed work in 1.1.8. I have no idea why they were working in 1.1.7 and not in 1.1.8, but I’ve gotten them to work in both versions now. I think there might be some very inconsistent power up issues? Not sure. But the stallguard example that comes with the TMC2130 library is pretty useful to make sure you’re not crazy. I just ran it right on the RAMPS board, without changing any wiring.
Sorry if this question is a bit confused, but is the SPI needed for just a one-time configuration, or is it needed every time the chip powers up? The reason I ask is that the TMC2208 (which is similar but communicates over UART instead of SPI) has a little USB “programmer” board of sorts to do configuration…
I’m guessing that after that, you just plug it into the RAMPS and off you go.
I’m not really sure. I think it does save the configuration somehow, maybe that’s why I’m getting so confused.
But it also does have some benefits of the ongoing SPI connection. It can detect when a stepper motor wire is disconnected, for example, and it can even stop Marlin, with a useful message.
I wouldn’t mind trying just programming them, and disconnecting the SPI. Just the wiring harness to connect 4 of them up took me an hour to make, and I’m not sure it’s 100% working. 
. Right now, I think these are more trouble than they are worth, but I do enjoy figuring out these kinds of things, so I’m not giving up yet.