I have a motion controller already. I'm looking for a 4 channel expansion board for the Pololu DRV8825 stepper driver or similar. I'm trying to stay on a budget and I see some inexpensive CNC shields that might work. Can you get something similar without the shield pins on the back side? Can I use a shield or similar board only using the step and direction pins on the front side?
If this is for a CNC Router, those DRV8825 drivers are underpowered and have a tendency to overheat. They work great for lasers and other lightweight machines. If you are thinking of using them anyway, do yourself a favor and do not buy the many obsolete CNC shield 3.0 clones that are still being sold. Those became obsolete with GRBL 0.8. Protoneer the company that designed them is now on version version 3.51 which is compatible with the current grbl version.
This will drive 4 small steppers 0.4, 0.64, 0.8, and 1.7A. If I use my controller to supply the step, direction, and enables, would I still need GRBL? I don't need the full function of a shield. I'm looking for a board with sockets for the DRV8825 drivers and pins for power, step dir, enable etc.
There are stepper motor arduino sketches that do not require grbl. The easiest would be a plain old breadboard. I am not aware of any others.
Or get some nice DQ542MA drivers? Much better than DRVs, nice screw terminals all round. Protected in a case with a big heatsink
I will have two stepper drives similar to te DQ for the of the larger motors I have. Seeing as most of my motors are low current draw, I was hopping to save some money on an inexpensive Pololu or similar.
