TB67S128FTG Stepper motor driver v2

$18.00

Available Now

This is a single axis stepper motor breakout board using Toshiba's TB67S128FTG driver.

With proper cooling it can achieve about 2.2A continuous per-phase making it suitable to control most NEMA 17 and NEMA 23 stepper motors in parallel and some smaller NEMA 34 motors in series.

Version 2 features mounting holes, an IDC connector with torque pin inputs, and larger board area to improve heat dissipation.

Features

  • Step and Dir control
  • Up to 1/128 microstepping
  • Up to 44V input
  • Torque limit inputs
  • About 1.0 A per phase current without cooling and slightly over 2A per phase continuously with active cooling
  • RGB LED status indicator light
  • 2x10 IDC connector

In order to simplify the design several pins have been hard wired to default values.

Mounting

The eval board has M3 holes for mounting at 25mm x 40mm (0.984 in x 1.575 in) spacing.

Photos / Renderings

Top of board

CodeLV TB67S128FTG driver eval board v2 top view

Bottom of board

CodeLV TB67S128FTG driver eval board v2 bottom view

Quickstart

The minimal setup requires:

  1. 3.3 to 5V between VIN and GND
  2. Set M0 to M2 as desired below
  3. With the motor disconnected, apply power to VM and adjust trimmer to set current limit
  4. Turn off power, connect motor, turn on power
  5. Set enable pin high
  6. Use step and dir pins to control motor

Warning: VM and VIN do not have reverse polarity protection always double check before plugging it in and turning on power!

Note: Do not set enable high before appling power to VIN

Current adjustment

The board has a trimmer to set VREF. The eval board is hard wired to run in resistor less mode with a gain of 1/5 as shown in section 13.2 of the datasheet. 

Ilim = 1.56  * Vref

With the motor disconnected, apply VM and measure the voltage between Vref and ground. The adjustment screw is tied to Vref so you can use that to measure the voltage.

Note: I highly recommend putting a meter in-line with one of the coils to get an actual current reading.

Microstepping

The pins M0 to M2 set the micostepping level. I recommend using the highest resolution your software supports as it will reduce vibration and noise.

M0 M1 M2 Mode
L L L Full step resolution
L L H Half step resolution
L H L Quarter step resolution
L H H 1/8 step resolution
H L L 1/16 step resolution
H L H 1/32 step resolution
H H L 1/64 step resolution
H H H 1/128 step resolution

Note: Resolution is not the same as accuracy. The torque available changes based on the step angle which can cause positional errors.

Torque Setting

The pins TQ0 to TQ2 set the torque level. These can be used to limit current and heat of the driver. By default torque is set to 100% using 100k pull down resistors.

TQ0 TQ1 TQ2 Mode
L L L Torque 100%
L L H Torque 85%
L H L Torque 70%
L H H Torque 60%
H L L Torque 50%
H L H Torque 40%
H H L Torque 25%
H H H Torque 10%
Status LED

The eval board features a RGB led to help you check the status of the driver. The LED will be green when the enable pin is high. When power is applied to VM, the LED will turn blue. If VM has power and is enabled both will be on so the LED will look teal.

If there is a fault on the LO0 pin (such as over current or over temp) the red LED will illuminate, making the LED appear white.

Faults

You can check the fault by reading the LO0 and LO1 pins. To reset the fault VM must be cycled or the driver must be put into standby.

LO0 LO1 Error
Hi-Z Hi - Z None
Hi-Z L Motor open load
L Hi-Z Over current
L L Thermal shutdown

Datasheet

TB67S128FTG Datasheet

Schematic

Schematic

Comments

This was designed this using Horizon-EDA. The PCB's were fabbed by JLCPCB. Assembly and reflow is done in house.