Driving a Stepper Driver with Jetson TX2 GPIO

I’m trying to drive a stepper with my Jetson TX2 Dev Board. The driver is DQ542MA and needs 5V signals.

So I have run my GPIOs through a logic level converter. Until there everything is fine. I have 0 and 5V on the high side when i enter 0 and 3.3V on the low side when checked unconnected.

However when I connect my signals to the driver the voltage drops to 1.4V when high (checked with multimeter) and this isn’t enough to run the dirver. The same configuration runs with an Arduino so stepper and driver are functioning well.

Logic Level Converter run with external supply just to be sure that I have enough current but the problem remains?.

Is there an internal resistance or something on the driver? How can I overcome this? And how is it possible to run it directly from an Arduino but not from Jetson TX2?

hello nsarantinoudis,

may i know which GPIO pins you’re using?
did you still saw voltage drop if you enable GPIOs manually?
please check below example to control GPIO220.

1. Location of the GPIOs
/sys/class/gpio
2. Generate gpio220 name
echo 220 > export
3. Enable the gpio
echo out > direction && echo 1 > value

Hello JerryChang,

I’ve been using GPIO298 and GPIO398. Currently I’m using this code from JetsonHacks (GPIO Interfacing – NVIDIA Jetson TX1 - JetsonHacks) with some modifications to make it work on TX2. Do you think that if I enable them manually there will be something different? I’ll test it into the next our and post you my results as soon as possible.

Also I’ve been using this (NVIDIA Jetson TX2 J21 Header Pinout - JetsonHacks) as reference for the GPIOs as suggested by others in this forum. Is it valid?

Thanks.

UPDATE: It seems that i had made a connection error and everything works perfectly directly from the TX2 (using only a logic level converter to make 3.3V → 5V). Sorry for any inconvenience. However my previous questions if answered will be helpful.

Just quoting because for whatever reason the post isn’t showing up for everyone.

Hi nsarantinoudis

is it possible to share your solution on how you have connected your stepper motor to Jetson TX2 physically?

Cheers