The VAL3000 is the easiest — and most wireless — way to spin a stepper motor. Precisely control distance, speed, current, and stall behavior within minutes of opening the box. No soldering, no programmer, no Home Assistant required. What's on the board Espressif ESP32-C3 (Wi-Fi) Trinamic TMC2209 driver with StallGuard and StealthChop 2A synchronous DC/DC converter (high-efficiency 3.3V regulation) USB-C port for flashing Three onboard buttons End stop connections 4-pin JST XH motor connector, plus exposed pads for direct soldering Setup in three steps Flash. The VAL3000 ships as a bare board, ready for the open-source firmware of your choice. Grab a prebuilt binary from our GitHub releases and flash it from your browser at web.esphome.io over USB-C — about one minute. Connect. Plug in any 4-wire bipolar stepper motor and a 12–24V, 2A+ power supply (2.1mm × 5.5mm barrel connector). Control. On first boot the board creates its own Wi-Fi hotspot. Join it from your phone, add the board to your network, and control it from any browser. It's automatically discoverable in Home Assistant, but works standalone too. Firmware and code Everything is free and open source. If you're building a curtain opener, the prebuilt Ropener firmware is in the Ropener releases. For everything else — or to build something custom — the full source and ESPHome configuration live in the Valar Motion repository. Fork it and make it your own. Hardware details Trinamic TMC2209 One of the best stepper drivers on the market — feature-rich and affordable. StallGuard lets you stop the motor whenever load exceeds a threshold you set, so a jammed curtain or an unexpected hand ends the move instead of stripping hardware. StealthChop keeps operation near-silent. All driver parameters are programmable from the ESP32 over UART. Flexible motor connection Connect your motor two ways: the onboard 4-pin JST XH plug, or wires soldered directly to the exposed pads. Three buttons Sometimes it's nice to press a physical button. Behavior is entirely up to your firmware — a common setup uses the top two for open/close (or forward/reverse) and the bottom one to reset Wi-Fi. Specifications MCU Espressif ESP32-C3 (2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) Driver Trinamic TMC2209 (StallGuard, StealthChop) Input voltage 5–28V DC (12–24V recommended), 2.1mm × 5.5mm barrel connector Recommended supply 2A or greater Max motor current 2A Motor type Any 4-wire bipolar stepper Regulator AP63203 2A synchronous buck, 3.3V Programming USB-C Board dimensions 52.5 × 40 mm Need Thread or Zigbee? The VAL3100 is the same board built on the ESP32-C6, adding Thread and Zigbee radios for low-power and battery applications. If Wi-Fi is all you need, the VAL3000 is the better value.
