Graham Prophet
EDN Europe
Rohm Semiconductor has designed an Arduino-based evaluation kit (EVK) to support the evaluation of its motor driver devices: the shield plugs directly into the Arduino main board, and the EVK integrates a Rohm’s HTSSOP-B28 packaged stepper motor drive IC allowing engineers to rapidly prototype their stepper motor systems.
Engineers have to consider, in configuring stepper designs, various aspects such as speed, vibration, and performance optimization. The EVK comes in 15 different variants for Rohm’s stepper motor driver ICs – from standard, micro step, low voltage to high voltage. The solution covers supply voltages from 8 V to 42 V, enables up to 2.5 A per phase, as well as micro-stepping and single- or multi-phase control of one or two stepper motors. It is suited to drive bipolar stepper motors available in a wide range of supply voltages and current capabilities. It drives with CLK-IN or CLK-IN variants and provides high efficiency, easier power control and comprehensive protection functionalities in a robust and compact design, enabling accurate fine-tuning of the motor performances. The EVK is designed to be stackable so that a second shield can be added on top, to drive two motors.
The ‘easy to adapt’ kit is supplied with a software library, an extensive user guide and example programs to facilitate a rapid learning curve. Once the design is proven, engineers can move rapidly from prototype to production phases fully supported by the Bill-of-Materials (BOM) and Gerber-based PCB layouts that are provided.
