Dear Sirs,
I've to develop a microstepping application (1/128) and I'm thinking about the L6480 stepper driver. My question is how to correctly start in developing with this driver. Actually I've bougth a EVAL6480H (R1.1) eval board, on this there are the two bridge and the driver, so I'm thinking to connect the board through the SPI connector (SPI_IN) to another board with a microcontroller, here start the doubt, what should be the best choice to start.
I've see the EVAL6480H-DISC board and the STEVAL-PCC009V2 board listed into the L6480 web page section Evaluation Tools (at the bottom of the page).
Concerning the EVAL6480H-DISC board from the datasheet I can read:
"The EVAL6480H-DISC is an ideal starter kit for both beginners and experienced users, it is
autonomous and can be used with a software interface, or it can be used with custom firmware thanks to the embedded microcontroller."
QUESTION #1
The sentence "or it can be used with custom firmware thanks to the embedded microcontroller" means that I can delete all the previosuly written firmware and then download into the micro my cutom firmware or I've some limitation in doing this operation. I've to written a custom application to control a system able to guide a small rope on a drum precisely (slow rotation speed) so I've to code my firmware on the microcontroller, is possible to do with this board?
QUESTION #2
If the previous question answer will be yes what type of C compiler I've to use?
QUESTION #3
Can I do same things by means of the other board STEVAL-PCC009V2 directly connected to the EVAL6480H board thorugh the SPI port? In other words can I code my custom application also with the STEVAL-PCC009V2 and a suitable C compiler and by using the STSW-SPIN005 firmware library? From the board datasheet I can read:
"Supports two modes:
– application mode: the PC GUI allows SPI, I2C and UART interfacing and control of the communication parameters
– DFU mode: allows the user to change the firmware if required to suit specific applications"
The DFU mode means that I will be able to rewrite and reprogram the microcontroller or I've some limits?
QUESTION #4
About the EVAL6480H-DISC, in order to download the new firmware (if this is possible to do) can I use the JTAG port or the USB is also available (I've see that the USB lines are connected to the microcontroller, but I don't know if this is only used by the GUI demo application or if I can use it as bootloader)?
QUESTION #5
For the microcontroller, concerning the USB, is available a free library to implement a design with bootloader or I've to write my bootloader?
I know there are many question, most of them may seems simple but I need to start into the right direction, thank for everyone that have time to give me some hint.
Best regards
Fabio
