Newbie- Breakout Board... what did I buy?

[sweddle]

Hello,

So I’m new to all this and well I was on eBay and saw what I thought was a Stepper motor diver/controller...
The board: [http://www.ebay.com/itm/270736984696...t_2647wt_1110] - A4983 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with Voltage Regulators[/url]
I thought it would connect to the steppers and my PC via parallel port to it... But noooo it is only a "Brake out board" well it looks cool and looks like it may do allot but I’m not sure what it will actually do for me...
So why do I need or want this "fancy" one over a standard generic one that just breaks out the parallel port???

Thanks for any explaining of the benefits to having the board that I now have....

P.S. I have order 3 Pololu A4983 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with Voltage Regulators to connect to the board mentioned above.
(Pololu - A4983 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with Voltage Regulators) I’m hoping this will allow me to make my steppers move.

Thanks for the help and info!
Shane

[doorknob]

The terminology can be misleading or confusing. In this case, the term "breakout board" can have two somewhat different meanings depending on context.

The typical CNC meaning of the term "breakout board" is a circuit that takes a 25-pin D subminiature connector input (from the parallel port or 'LPT' output of a PC) and makes each of those 25 pins available at a separate terminal, in order to make it easier to hook up one or more stepper motor driver boards to the parallel port. Such breakout boards may also include extra features such as electronic buffering or optical isolation or relay control circuitry. What this breakout board is breaking out is the pins of the 25-pin D connector.

That type of "breakout board" is not what you have linked to.

Instead, there is another usage of the term "breakout board" that is more commonly seen on electronic hobbyist sites (such as News - SparkFun Electronics) to denote a small circuit board that makes it easier to use specialized integrated circuits by connecting the extremely fine surface mount or pin terminals from the chip to more-accessible printed circuit board terminals (that can easily have wires soldered to them). Some such "breakout boards", such as the one that you linked to, may incorporate additional support circuitry beyond just a single IC. What this type of breakout board is breaking out is the pins of an integrated circuit.

The specific board that you have linked to is indeed a driver for a small stepper motor. It is not designed to connect directly to an LPT port cable, rather you either need to hook up just a few of the wires from an LPT port cable to the step and direction terminals of the board, or you need to use one of the (first definition above) breakout boards to separate out the step and direction wires to terminals which you would then wire up to the step and direction inputs of that (second definition) breakout board.

Hope that makes some sense...

[Jackal66]

I may be wrong, but aren't these small breakout boards that are in the link, for remote controlled devises such as robots, cars, etc?

Don't take my word for it. Doorknob or some of the others that really know can confirm this.

JAckal

[doorknob]

The driver boards are good for small motors, so they should be able to handle a small CNC machine as well as robotics and similar applications.

The instructions do mention that it is important to add proper heat sinking to the board in order to keep the driver chip cool (if you want to approach the maximum current rating).

[sweddle]

@doorknob, thanks for the info..

Oooops! I just realized that I posted a link to the Pololu part twice and no link the board from eBay that is in question... (I have edited the post) and here is the link to the eBay board I would like to know what it can do for me...
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Sorry for the mix up and tanks for the help...
Shane

[doorknob]

Originally Posted by sweddle Hello, So I’m new to all this and well I was on eBay and saw what I thought was a Stepper motor diver/controller... The board: []eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices - A4983 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with Voltage Regulators[/url]

OK, it looks like you have changed that first link to point to a (first type of) breakout board that connects to an LPT port...

So that should work with the 3 stepper driver boards that you have ordered (as described in my earlier post).

What it gets you above and beyond a plain vanilla breakout board is additional connections for things such as a hand-held motor control box (or 'pendant'), a digital display board, and a relay that may be used to control accessories (such as a low-power spindle).