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Wiring

Overview

Stepper Motor Driver v1.1 are connected to Arduino using CAT5. On the board end CAT5 is soldered into the boards, on Arduino end, to pluggable 5-pin header (ENABLE, STEP, DIR, MIN, MAX).

Stepper Motor Driver v1.2 uses 10-pin ribbon cable with IDC connector on the board. Again, a 5-pin header can be soldered to the pins 3-7 of the ribbon cable on Arduino end. The pin order is slightly different (STEP, DIR, ENABLE, MIN, MAX). 

Ground wire connects the contraption frame to Arduino ground. It also provides common ground to the sliding elements and the rails (because they are isolated by PTFE). Stepper driver boards are grounded and heatsinked to the frame via L298 using 3" angle (a wire is shown in the picture instead). 

Materials

CAT5 cable or 10-pin ribbon cable
Hookup wire
Connectors (included with stepper board)
Zip ties

Wiring scheme

Making

SMD v1.1: Solder about 4-6 ft of CAT5 to each stepper driver board. You only need to solder 5 wires - ENABLE, STEP, DIR, MIN, MAX. On the other end of CAT5, solder the same wires in the same order (check the coloring) to 5-pin header strip.

SMD v1.2: Solder 5-pin header to pins 3-7 of the ribbon cable on Arduino end - STEP, DIR, ENABLE, MIN, MAX. Pin 1 is on the red side of the ribbon cable. You may want to use longer length of the cable than 8" included with the SMD v1.2 kit.

Solder the stepper motor wires to the motor connector. For 44A501711 the wire order is red-blue-green-gray (white and yellow not used), for other motors it may be different.

Solder 4-6 ft of black hookup wire to 1-pin header. This will connect Arduino GND to the contraption frame. Black hookup wire will also be used to connect electrically isolated sliding elements and rails. Stepper driver boards will be mounted by the heatsinks directly on the frame - this will provide heat dissipation and ground connection.

Zip ties can make wiring very neat. 


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