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[astrochemist]

Hi All,

When building my MEGA astroeq I wanted a nice tidy motor board. I have designed my own and it has been very successful. The board has space for two drivers (it can be cut in half so only one driver is available). It only cost me £13 from JCLPCB (cheaper if you don't want it fast). I have attached the Gerber files so you can make your own. The motor connections are via screw terminals. The driver boards are on pin headers, I played about with different  boards and settled on the TMC2100. My first Auduino Mega had a faulty voltage regulator and took out the Arduino and driver boards!!!. I replace the driver boards (very easy) and also powered the Mega using a Voltage Step down board instead of the onboard regulator. Has worked so far!.

[astrochemist]

Hi,

Just updating my mount and I found all the wiring for the arduino mega a pain. So I designed a Mega Shield that once populated plugs on top of the Arduino Mega and then the stepper drivers on top of that. Just ordered 5x boards from JLCPCB for £10 including P & P. I will post photos of the populated shield when it arrives. I use a DC-DC converter to supply 5V to the Mega as the onboard regulator self destructed and took out my first controller.

Attached is the preview and the KICAD and gerber files for anybody that is interested.

[astrochemist]

Finally had time to assemble the shield and wire and test. One issue I had was I forgot to update the Mega Boot Loader until I had full wired the box (opps). I have tested the shield and every thing is fully working.

I use a DC-DC board for the 5 V power. I have also added a Schottky Diode to prevent usb power from back feeding through the converter and attempting to power the steppers when the 12 V supply is disconnected.

I have two boards spare and lots of parts if any would like a to make there own shield. I can provide the screw terminals and headers plus a diode and caps.

Please see pictures and video.