Stepper motors have been widely used in mechatronic equipment such as machine tools due to their reasonable price, high cost-effectiveness, and convenient control. Stepper motors rely on pulse signals provided by the controller and drive power supply to perform functions such as frequency increase/decrease, fast forward, speed change, stop, and reverse. Therefore, the quality of the control circuit and drive power supply determines the operating performance and stability of the stepper motor. Making control simpler, more convenient, and more economical is another important issue in the application of stepper motors.
Currently, a large number of mechatronic equipment, machine tools, and automated production equipment use PLC control, and some of these functions require stepper motor servo control drive solutions. For example, in situations requiring multi-speed, multi-stroke feed control or auxiliary control (grinding feed, automatic wheel dressing, etc.).
PLCs themselves do not have high-speed pulse output, so an additional intelligent control module must be added to the PLC to support the stepper motor control. This module, along with a microstepping drive power supply, significantly increases the cost of the entire control unit, limiting the widespread use of stepper motor drivers.
To overcome the aforementioned problems, Shanshe Motor offers a new type of control driver product. It fully utilizes the resources and high operating speed of a microcontroller, using software to complete various hardware functions and other features, integrating the stepper motor control module and drive power supply into one unit. This simplifies the hardware circuitry, significantly reduces costs, and results in a compact size that is easy to install and use. It is widely applicable to two-phase, no-amplitude hybrid stepper motors (80 series and below).
The control driver is based on the popular ATM89C51 with built-in 4K FLASHROM, and includes modules such as input, D/A conversion, and power amplification.
The most significant feature of this control driver is its software-based operation. The following key functions are performed via software: input scanning, frequency scaling, software pulse loop division, and full step/microstep switching.
The microcontroller receives level signals from four external input ports: one bit for direction control and the remaining three bits for speed control. Different combinations of these signals can select seven commonly used operating frequencies and stop/reset states (as shown in the attached table). It automatically performs tasks such as frequency ramping, stepping/microstepping switching, and outputs the pulse after loop division.
