Boards based on Smoothie use digital potentiometers instead of manual potentiomenters.
Instead of using a screwdriver to set the current value for the stepper motor driver ( which can be quite imprecise ), you simply set the value in the configuration file.
These are the names of the different stepper motors/drivers, and the corresponding values to change :
| Label on the Smoothieboard | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axis in a cartesian machine | X ( left-right ) | Y ( front-back ) | Z ( up-down ) | E0 : First extruder | E1 : Second extruder |
| Greek letter | α ( alpha ) | β ( beta ) | γ ( gamma ) | δ ( delta ) | ε ( epsilon ) |
| Current setting configuration option | alpha_current | beta_current | gamma_current | delta_current | epsilon_current |
The value is in Amperes, and is generally found on the motor itself, or in it's datasheet.
You can find and set these values in the configuration file.
They are found near the other values for a given axis, for example :
beta_step_pin 2.1 # Pin for beta stepper step signal
beta_dir_pin 0.11 # Pin for beta stepper direction
beta_en_pin 0.10 # Pin for beta enable
beta_current 1.5 # Y stepper motor current
beta_max_rate 30000.0 # mm/min
