New product: STSPIN820 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with 1/256 microstepping

We have yet another new stepper motor driver carrier in our popular 16-pin, 0.6″ × 0.8″ form factor, this time for STMicro’s STSPIN820, which offers 1/256 step microstepping! ST actually has their own similar evaluation board, the EVALSP820-XS, but the STSPIN820 chip has a non-inverted Enable input, which is inverted compared to most other stepper motor driver ICs out there, and they expose the pin that way on their version of the board. We have thoughtfully added a transistor-based inverter so that our board is more likely to work as a drop-in replacement (or upgrade!) for the stepper driver boards you already have. In our tests, the Pololu carrier supported a substantially higher maximum current than the ST eval board (around 900 mA compared to 720 mA, probably due to our board having four layers vs. two layers for the ST eval board), and as of this writing (27 November 2018), our board is also priced lower.

You can see the full schematic for all the details (this schematic is also available as a downloadable pdf (109k pdf)):

Schematic diagram of the STSPIN820 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier.

With our release earlier in November of compact carriers for Toshiba’s TB67S249FTG and TB67S279FTG stepper motor drivers, we now offer ten different stepper motor driver modules in this compact size:

	A4988 (original)	A4988, Black Ed.	DRV8825	DRV8834	DRV8880	MP6500, Pot. CC	MP6500, Digital CC	TB67S279­FTG	TB67S249­FTG	STSPIN­820
Driver chip:	A4988		DRV8825	DRV8834	DRV8880	MP6500		TB67S279­FTG	TB67S249­FTG	STSPIN­820
Min operating voltage:	8 V		8.2 V	2.5 V	6.5 V	4.5 V		10 V	10 V	7 V
Max operating voltage:	35 V		45 V	10.8 V	45 V	35 V		47 V	47 V	45 V
Max continuous current per phase:(1)	1 A	1.2 A	1.5 A	1.5 A	1 A	1.5 A		1.1 A	1.6 A	0.9 A
Peak current per phase:(2)	2 A		2.2 A	2 A	1.6 A	2.5 A	2 A	2 A	4.5 A	1.5 A
Microstepping down to:	1/16		1/32	1/32	1/16	1/8		1/32	1/32	1/256
Board layer count:	2	4	4	4	4	4		4	4	4
Special features:			high current	low-voltage operation, high current	AutoTune, digital current reduction	high current	digital current control, high current	Auto Gain Control, ADMD, high max voltage	Auto Gain Control, ADMD, high max voltage, high current	128 and 256 microsteps
1-piece price:	$4.49	$4.95	$15.95	$7.95	$8.95	$6.95	$6.95	$10.75	$12.95	$14.95
1 On Pololu carrier board, at room temperature, and without additional cooling. 2 Maximum theoretical current based on components on the board (additional cooling required).

As with all of our new products this year, we are offering an introductory special. The first 100 customers that use coupon code STSPIN820INTRO can get up to five units at just $5 each.

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STSPIN820 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier