SparkFun Big Easy Driver

The Big Easy Driver, designed by Brian Schmalz, is a stepper motor driver board for bi-polar stepper motors up to a max 2A/phase. It is based on the Allegro A4988 stepper driver chip. It's the next version of the popular Easy Driver board.

Each Big Easy Driver can drive up to a max of 2A per phase of a bi-polar stepper motor. It is a chopper microstepping driver which defaults to 16 step microstepping mode. It can take a maximum motor drive voltage of around 30V, and includes on-board 5V/3.3V regulation, so only one supply is necessary. Although this board should be able to run most systems without active cooling while operating at 1.4-1.7A/phase, a heatsink is required for loads approaching 2A/phase. You can find the recommended heatsink in the related items below.

Note: This product is a collaboration with Brian Schmalz. A portion of each sale goes back to him for product support and continued development.

Features

• Bi-polar Microstepping Driver
• 2A/Phase Max
• 1.4-1.7A/Phase w/o Heatsink
• Max Motor Drive Voltage: 30V
• On-board 5V/3.3V Regulation

Resources

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Hookup Guide
• Datasheet (A4988)
• Design Site
• GitHub