SS0705 Unipolar

Assembled versions of SS0705, showing connector options TTT and LLL (respectively)

The SS0705 board is a complete Unipolar dual stepper motor controller system. The board is very convenient to any hobbyist who has an old floppy disk drive hanging around (the 5 1/4 inch drives tended to have 12 volt unipolar motors, which this unit can handle quite well), and can be trivially controlled by other microprocessing systems (such as the Parallax Basic Stamp product line). Since it takes over the issues of timing, other operations can be performed by your computer while the new motion is completing.

Please view information about our BiStep products, if you need to control Bipolar stepper motors, or motors which require more than 0.5 amps/winding of drive current.

The SS0705 includes the capability of driving one or two 0.5 Amp 4 pole 7.5 to 15 volt Unipolar stepper motors at a time when used with a single power supply. As with the BiStep products, it also supports a dual power supply feature, wherein the motors use a separate supply from the logic circuits; in this mode, up to a 26 volt power supply may be used for the motors. You will want to review the calculating motor current faq in order to determine the current requirements for your motor.

Double Current Mode: The GenStepper and PotStepper firmwares for our products now allow you to run one motor (instead of two) at double the rated current of the board! For example, if you purchase a BS0710 board, which can handle two 1-Amp motors (assuming that you cool the board adequately), then that board can now be configured by you to handle one 2-amp motor instead. Please review the motor connections faq for more information.

This board may be optionally configured to act as a serial router for our product line, through use of the SerRoute firmware option. This option replaces the stepper motor control with serial routing of up to nine boards, up to 8 relay, and up to 4 TTL input operations. Please click here for more information about the serial routing firmware.

Similarly, this board may be optionally configured to operate in a NC (numerically controlled) process environment, through use of the NCStepper firmware option. This firmware tightly links the two motors together, providing for easy "exact straight line" and simplified arc/circle drawing. Please click here for more information about the NCStepper firmware.

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Key Benefits

The SS0705 has the following key capabilities when using the GenStepper firmware:

Up to two Unipolar 4-pole stepper motors may be independently controlled at one time.

Each motor may draw up to 0.5 amps per winding.
If only a single motor is connected to the board, and the GenStepper firmware revision is 1.59 or later, then you can configure the board and wire the motor for double current mode. This allows you to handle a single motor with up to 1 amp/winding with this product!
Limit switches may be used to automatically request motion stop of either motor in either direction.
Rates of 1 to 62,500 microsteps per second are supported.
Step rates are changed by linearly ramping the rates; the rate of change is independently programmed for each motor, and can be from 1 to 62,500 microsteps per second per second.
All motor coordinates and rates are expressed in programmable microstep units of 1/2 to 1/64 of a full step. Once the base step size is selected, changing stepping modes between half, full and micro does not change any other value other than which winding pairs may be driven at the same time.
Motor coordinates are maintained as 32 bit signed values, and thus have a range of –2,147,483,647 through +2,147,483,647.
Both GoTo and Slew actions are fully supported.
Four modes of stepping the motor are supported:
- Half steps (alternates 1 winding and two windings enabled at a time),
- Full power full steps (2 windings enabled at a time)
- Half power full steps (1 winding enabled at a time)
- Near-constant-current microsteps (each from 1/64 to 1/2 of a full step) ¹
A TTL "busy" signal is available, which can be used to see if the motors are still moving. Note that this information is also available from the serial communications subsystem.
Simple control of the motors may be done by switch closure: i.e., each motor can be told to slew left or right, or to stop by simply grounding some input lines. Similarly, the rate of motion can be controlled via stepping through a standard set of rates via grounding another input.
Complete control of the motors, including total monitoring of current conditions, is available through the 2400 or 9600 baud serial connection.
An additional mode is available which allows an external computer to directly generate step sequences on the motor control lines. Up to 62,500 microsteps per second may be requested.
Runs off of a single user-provided 7.5 to 15 volt DC power supply. May also be configured using a split supply, wherein the motor runs off of a 5 to 26 volt DC power supply, while the logic circuit runs off of a 7.5 to 15 volt DC supply.
Connector options exist to allow use of MTA-100 locking SIP header connectors or terminal block (screw terminal) connectors for most external connections.
Theoretically, an unlimited number of boards can be controlled via one serial line, if the SerRoute firmware is used on some of our boards to route to serial data.

¹ The SS0705 uses the same firmware as the BiStep series of products; however, the base board was designed with half-stepping unipolar control in mind. For operation to 1/16th of a full step, the SimStep and BiStep product capabilities are equivalent; however, for resolutions finer than 1/16th of a full step, the BiStep series of offerings provide better positional precision.

Click Here for the full PDF manual for the SS0705 product.

Common Firmware Options of the SimStep and BiStep series of Motor Controller Boards

The GenStepper Firmware (our most popular firmware) allows you to control two motors independently of each other. It also supports a "double current mode", wherein a single motor may be operated at up to twice the rated current of the board! Please click here for more information about this product.

The NCStepper Firmware permits our stepper boards to operate two motors in a tightly coupled environment, appropriate for Numerical Control machines (such as X-Y tables). Please click here for more information on this feature.

The PotStepper Firmware allows you to control two motors independently of each other. The rate of motion of the motors may be controlled via a user-provided potentiometer. As with the GenStepper firmware, It also supports a "double current mode", wherein a single motor may be operated at up to twice the rated current of the board! Please click here for more information on this feature.

RelayStepper Firmware permits our boards to simultaneously operate one motor and up to 4 relays, as well as providing for up to 9 TTL input signals. Please click here for more information on this product.

The SerRoute Firmware can operate any number of stepper motors via one serial line! This firmware option allows for 3 (default configuration) to 9 (optional) motor controller boards to be operated via one serial port, if it is installed on a SimStep series unit, thus providing for 6 to 18 motors controlled by one 9600 baud connection using just one SerRoute-based board as the serial supervisor. If multiple SerRoute based boards are used as routers, there is no upper limit to the number of motors which can be controlled by one line. Please click here for more information on this product.

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All products come with a 15 day satisfaction guarantee, and the assembled products come with a 30 day return to factory warranty. Please click here for the details...