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HardFOC driver

TMC5160 Driver

A C++20 driver for the Analog Devices (Trinamic) TMC5160 and TMC5130 stepper motor controllers. It sets the motor current from the motor's datasheet values, runs the chip's internal ramp generator in degrees, millimetres or RPM, and gives you StallGuard2, CoolStep, StealthChop, encoder feedback and sensorless homing, on any MCU with SPI or a UART.

Quickstart API guide Source on GitHub

The driver has no platform code. You give it a small class that moves bytes over SPI or a UART, sets the DRV_ENN pin and waits; it does the rest: datagram framing, daisy-chain padding, UART CRC, register caching, current calculation, unit conversion and fault decoding.

Stepper controller and gate driver with motion controller TMC5160 Analog Devices (Trinamic)
Function
2-phase bipolar stepper, external MOSFET bridges for 1 A to several 10 A per coil, up to 256 microsteps
Motion
Internal SixPoint ramp generator (positioning and velocity modes), or STEP/DIR input
Host interface
SPI mode 3, 40-bit datagrams, up to 4 MHz on the internal clock; or single-wire UART with CRC8
Supply
VS 10 V to 55 V operating (8 V reduced spec, 60 V absolute maximum); VCC_IO 3.0 V to 5.25 V
Features
StallGuard2, CoolStep, StealthChop2, SpreadCycle, DcStep, ABN encoder, two reference switches
Package
eTQFP48 (7 x 7 mm body) or QFN56 (8 x 8 mm)
Also supported
TMC5130: the same register set with integrated MOSFETs (up to 1.4 A), detected at start-up

TMC5160 datasheet ยท TMC5130 differences

What you get

  • One object per chip. TMC51x0<YourPort> exposes the chip as named subsystems: rampControl, motorControl, stallGuard, encoder, homing, status and more. See API guide.
  • Current from the motor datasheet. Give rated current, sense resistor and supply; the driver computes GLOBAL_SCALER, IRUN and IHOLD. See Current and chopper.
  • Physical units. Positions in degrees, steps or millimetres, speeds in RPM or rev/s, with lead screw, belt and gearbox ratios. See Motion and units.
  • Sensorless homing. StallGuard2 threshold tuning and bounds finding without end switches. See StallGuard and homing.
  • Several chips on one bus. SPI daisy chains and UART node addresses. See Multi-chip.
  • Zero-overhead portability. The port is a CRTP class: no virtual calls, no RTOS dependency, every call returns Result<T>. See Porting.
  • Tested without hardware. Host unit tests run the driver against a model of the chip's SPI interface. See Testing and CI.

Where to go next

  • Quickstart

    Wire the chip, write the port, turn the motor half a revolution.

  • Hardware

    Pins, mode straps, bus settings, power and the sense resistor.

  • Architecture

    The three layers and what each one owns.

  • API guide

    Initialise, move, read, detect stalls and handle faults, task by task.

  • Porting

    Implement the communication interface for your MCU.

  • API reference

    Every class and member, generated from the headers.