External driver at 5.5V for nema 34

I am considering Smoothie for a heavy CNC that will be driven by nema 34. I see that smoothie has driver pins that are 3.3V. Would a 3.3V to 5V converter enable the smoothie to interface an external driver for large motors ? How would the wiring be to a DM860A ?
I heard that there is a board getting done that doesn’t have drivers, will it work on 5V ?

A tutorial or detailed explainations would be great as I’m sure I’m not the only one considering it.
Thanks

Imported from wikidot

I don’t think that you need a level converter (3.3v to 5v)
those kind of drivers have optocuplers on input and more than that I have seen many people connecting directly parallel port to such kind of dirvers.
And parallel port on recent computer output also 3.3v

DAniel

Hi !

I’m working on adding tutorials, the one on 3D printers should help you quite a bit ( but it does not include external drivers information just yet ) : http://smoothieware.org/3d-printer-guide

I’m fairly certain you can control those drivers using 3.3V, even though it recommends 5V. I recommend you try it, and if it doesn’t work, you can come back here and I’ll give you detailled instructions as to how to wire adapters.

Cheers :slight_smile: