aman said:
Thanks Chris. That is really helpful. I can see that UCN5804 is
available right now. But if it is not available 3 months from now my
design will fail. I need a design that i can sustain for atleast 2 more
years.
O.K., then. If the chip really fills the need, buy a few spares. But
if it bothers, how about some more information, like:
* Is this a new design, or are you trying to fill an existing IC
socket?
* Stepper coil current and voltage? Straight coil voltage or L-R?
* Maximum stepper speed?
* Do you need all the logic capabilities of the chip?
* If not, which ones do you need? Read the data sheet carefully.
* Thru hole OK or SMT only?
* Do you have any capability with PICs or other microcontrollers?
* List in order of importance: ckt board space, number of chips,
cost.
* Beyond the IC itself, there's another issue. What's the rest of
your control system look like? If you're using a computer, it would be
simple to offload the logic requirement for which phases should be on
to the existing computer, and it just becomes a ULN2003 or four
darlingtons, depending on current/voltage requirements.
That should be enough to start with. There are other stepper ICs out
there, although you probably won't get a one chip solution like the
Sprague IC.
Please answer all of the above (middle post in the spaces provided if
you want) and you could get an answer that works well.
Chris