A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier A4983/A4988 stepper motor driver carrier with dimensions. Overview This product is a carrier board or breakout board for Allegros A4988 DMOS Microstepping Driver with Translator and Overcurrent Protection we therefore recommend careful reading of the A4988 datasheet (380k pdf) before using this product. This stepper motor driver lets you control one bipolar stepper motor at up to 2 A output current per coil (see the Power Dissipation Considerations section below for more information). Here are some of the drivers key features: Simple step and direction control interface Five different step resolutions: full-step, half-step, quarter-step, eighth-step, and sixteenth-step Adjustable current control lets you set the maximum current output with a potentiometer, which lets you use voltages above your stepper motors rated voltage to achieve higher step rates Intelligent chopping control that automatically selects the correct current decay mode (fast decay or slow decay) Over-temperature thermal shutdown, under-voltage lockout, and crossover-current protection Short-to-ground and shorted-load protection This product ships with all surface-mount componentsincluding the A4988 driver ICinstalled as shown in the product picture. Note that we carry several stepper motor drivers that can be used as alternatives for this module. The Black Edition A4988 stepper motor driver carrier is available with approximately 20% better performance except for thermal characteristics, the Black Edition and this (green) board are interchangeable. We also sell a larger version of the A4988 carrier that has reverse power protection on the main power input and built-in 5 V and 3.3 V voltage regulators that eliminate the need for separate logic and motor supplies. Our DRV8825 carrier offers approximately 50% better performance over a wider voltage range and with a few additional features, while our DRV8834 carrier works with motor supply voltages as low as 2.5 V either of these boards can be used as a drop-in replacement for this driver in many applications.Some unipolar stepper motors (e.g. those with six or eight leads) can be controlled by this driver as bipolar stepper motors. For more information, please see the frequently asked questions. Unipolar motors with five leads cannot be used with this driver. Included hardware The A4988 stepper motor driver carrier comes with one 116-pin breakaway 0.1 male header. The headers can be soldered in for use with solderless breadboards or 0.1 female connectors. You can also solder your motor leads and other connections directly to the board. Using the driver Minimal wiring diagram for connecting a microcontroller to an A4988 stepper motor driver carrier (full- step mode). Power connections The driver requires a logic supply voltage (3 5.5 V) to be connected across the VDD and GND pins and a motor supply voltage (8 35 V) to be connected across VMOT and GND. These supplies should have appropriate decoupling capacitors close to the board, and they should be capable of delivering the expected currents (peaks up to 4 A for the motor supply).