Spectral Micro and STEPFOC¶
The Spectral Micro and the STEPFOC stepper driver are sister drivers: similar hardware and similar firmware, each made for its kind of motor. The Spectral Micro drives three-phase brushless motors; STEPFOC drives two-phase stepper motors. They are not the same board and do not run the same firmware, but they are controlled and run practically the same way: the same CAN and UART commands, the same Python library, Motor GUI and bootloader.
What this means in practice:
- The commands are practically the same. The CAN messages and UART commands of the API reference exist on both drivers,
with the same IDs, names and layouts; STEPFOC adds a few that only make sense on a stepper (homing against a
sensor, open-loop stepping). A program written for one runs on the other. The idle behaviour is the exception
over UART: the Spectral Micro sets it with
#Brake 0or#Brake 1and coasts by default, STEPFOC has the actions#Brakeand#Coast. Send_Settings over CAN is the same on both. - The firmware releases go in step. Most Spectral Micro releases have a STEPFOC counterpart with the same changes; the compatibility table lists the pairs. The numbers do not always match: the current pair is Spectral Micro 107 and STEPFOC 108.
- Calibration differs. The Spectral Micro measures the motor's resistance and inductance and finds its pole pairs; STEPFOC cannot, so there the three values are entered from the motor's datasheet first. See Calibration.
- The motor terminals differ. U, V and W for the three phases, instead of A+, A−, B+, B− for the two coils of a stepper.
- The grippers differ. The SSG-48 gripper is driven by a Spectral Micro, the MSG gripper by STEPFOC; both use the driver's gripper mode.
The guides under the Guides tab were written with the Spectral Micro; the code in them runs unchanged on STEPFOC.
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