Remixing Sinaptec board

Hi everyone, I'm looking into remixing Sinaptec board (for those who know nothing about it, click here).
Basically, I want to push the hardware cost down even further while keeping it friendly for beginner. I want to redesign several things on this board:

1. Rotate Pololu drivers orientation 90 degrees. I want to make cool air pass easier under the stepper driver. Current implementation on Sinaptec (and RAMPS board) is not optimal, I think.
2. Merge all X,Y, and Z stepper enable pin
3. Make stepper driver jumpers connected to GND (eliminated header pin and jumper cap) but keep their footprint (just in case)

So, any comment on my plans?

re 3) I presume you talking about micro stepping jumpers, they get jumper-ed to +5v, not gnd. (unless your aiming for full step mode vs 1/16 mode)

The "jumper cap", is not that at all... see the big warning on [www.pololu.com]

They protect the drivers from voltage spikes, removing that would destroy the pololu modules regularly

re enable pins... X and Y are already joined.

In general If you leave them enabled all the time the stepper are energized and heating up, this is not the best idea. Thus you normally turn off whats not needed.
Most machines don't need Z on all the time.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2016 05:25AM by Dust.

Quote
Dust
re 3) I presume you talking about micro stepping jumpers, they get jumper-ed to +5v, not gnd. (unless your aiming for full step mode vs 1/16 mode)

The "jumper cap", is not that at all... see the big warning on [www.pololu.com]

They protect the drivers from voltage spikes, removing that would destroy the pololu modules regularly

re enable pins... X and Y are already joined.

In general If you leave them enabled all the time the stepper are energized and heating up, this is not the best idea. Thus you normally turn off whats not needed.

Most machines don't need Z on all the time.

Uhh sorry, I didn't mean to remove the capacitor near the stepper module. But I do get your point, thanks for your correction on micro-stepping wiring. I am aiming for the most precise micro-stepping mode the driver support. I don't know if there's anyone who use A4988 and configure the jumpers for 1/8 microstep or larger.
Also, AFAIK most firmware has setting that deactivate steppers after a defined time. So the steppers are not enabled all the time.

oh you just meant the jumper header when you say "jumper cap", my bad... I though you where trying to remove the cap to help with air flow.

Moving the capacitor outside of the pins so air can flow easily under the driver module to help with air flow once rotated 90 degrees is a good idea.

Some people use 1/8th micro stepping on the Z axis.

Also if your using a drv8825 and want 1/16, that’s only 1 jumper on... it defaults to 1/32 with all jumpers on.

hi, my english is bad, so i will put that in spanish.
Para facilitar el flujo de aire se podría dar mas altura a los Drivers. Seria algo asi como un prolongador. De esa forma circularía mas aire.
Saludos!

You have my blessing . Haha!

I'm glad you are interested in this board.

greetings from Argentina.