L298 Interface for Step/Direction

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

I have bought 3 of these L298 stepper drivers off of ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150765336052&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:3160

I would like to use them for my CNC project, but the grbl firmware sends step/direction signals instead.

So my question, how can I integrate these stepper drivers.

Would it be cheaper to make three separate L297 circuits to interpret the signals? Or would getting a ATINY 20 and having that talk to all three, and act as an interpreter?

2

The main advantage of using the L297 is that it implements current limiting, using current sense resistors connected to the L298N. However, your L298N boards don't appear to have any provision for current sensing. So it may be simpler and cheaper to use a microcontroller to control all three, if you don't mind writing the firmware.