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Getting started

Spectral Micro BLDC driver

Soon for sale

You can buy a STEPFOC starter kit here: Link
Or buy a single motor driver here: Link

  1. Diametrically magnetized magnet
  2. Stepper motor; check here for all tested motors
  3. Programming adapter
  4. Serial adapter
  5. CAN adapter
  6. Termistor
  7. CAN wires and power wires

Hardware setup

Mounting PCB to Motor

Some hardware considerations:

  • Distance between motor encoder and magnet should be around 1 mm.
  • Hole spacing of Spectral micro is 31 mm

drawing

Electrical connections

REVERSING POLARITIY ON DC+- WILL DESTROY YOUR BOARD.

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  1. Solder motor phases to A+, A-, B+, B- (Note that you may latter need to desolder them to find correct phase order so make sure you dont have too short wires)
  2. Connect motor power to one of the Power connectors terminals
  3. If you are using UART comms. Connect Uart adapter to UART connector
  4. If you are using termistor, connect it to Termistor connecor
  5. If you are using CAN comms. Connect CAN adapter to one of CAN connectors
  6. When uploading code connect JTAG adapter to JTAG connector

Cable orientation

ALL cables used for dasiy chain (CAN and power) need to to follow orientation as shown on the image below! Failing to follow that will destroy your motor controller! All correct cables can be bought here: https://source-robotics.com/pages/connectors-and-cables

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Connecting multiple motors (daisy chaining)

Multiple STEPFOC stepper drivers or Spectral BLDC drivers and nodes can be connected to single CAN bus using daisy-chaining. First an last nodes on can bus should have termination resistors. You can flip the CAN switch to "ON" positon to enable termination resistor.

Power connectors can handle max 4 A DC. It is recommended to have at most 6 motor controllers (STEPFOC or Spectral micro) in one daisy chain.

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Thermistor connection

Solder the termistor like shown in the image.

Thermistor is disabled by default. To enable it use command #Term 1

drawing

Thermistor needs to be placed on the housing of the stepper motor. Another option is remove one of the 4 stepper screws on the bottom and place thermistor inside that hole. Apply thermal cement on the thermistor to secure it in place and improve termal conductivity.

Status

Normal operation Calibration Error mode
3 short flashed and a pause

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Flashing every 0.5 seconds

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Solid LED, no flashing.

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If you have STEPFOC firmware uploaded on your STEPFOC, LEDs will be in one of 3 states.

STEPFOC controllers come PRELOADED with STEPFOC firmware

  • Normal operation is when motor controller has no active errors and is calibrated
  • Error mode is active if any error on the motor driver is active. List of possible errors:
    1. Temperature error
    2. Drv error
    3. Encoder error
    4. Vbus error
    5. Velocity error
    6. Current error
    7. Not calibrated
    8. Received ESTOP
    9. Watchdog error
  • Calibration will flash when in calibration routine

What next?