Arduino Program for a Stepper Motor

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PeterW2

46 posts

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#259869 27-Oct-2019 10:33

Good morning all

Sorry, this is a relatively long 'ask'.
I am wanting to make a coil winder to wind several coils of around 25,000 turns each. My plan is to (initially, anyway) turn the coil to be would by hand, but to lay the wire on the coil using a guide driven by a stepper motor. Assuming the coil to be 50mm wide and using a wire that's 0.2mm in diameter, this will require each layer of the coil to have 250 turns on it. The stepper motor would be attached to a lead screw that the wire guide is attached to. Once a coil layer is complete, the stepper motor will then reverse direction, and the next coil layer would then be wound. If the stepper motor is directly connected to the lead screw, and the pitch of the lead screw is 1mm, then the stepper motor will need (assuming a full step rate of 200 per rotation) to step 10,000 steps per layer of the coil. I can see that I will need to attach a sensor to the coil being wound so that it can send data to the Arduino as to how many rotations the arbour has done. The arbour rotation speed won't be consistent, as I will be turning it by hand (at the beginning of this project).

My question is: My experience with Arduino is very limited, and I am getting quite frustrated that I can't seem to find any information on line how to go about writing a suitable program for the Arduino. Can anyone steer me in the right direction?. What I need is a Arduino program (which, to me, sounds really simple) to drive the stepper motor the right (programmable) number of steps, which may be something like 200 for 20 input pulses (also needing to be programmable), and then after (say) 1,000 input (or 10,000) output pulses, the direction of the stepper motor to be reversed?

I have an Arduino Uno kit, which I have experimented with (only flashing LED's), but the programs that come with the kit all appear to be based on 'time' rather than 'counting'. I am very much of the belief that I can do this, but need help from better educated people than me. I am aware I will need to get a stepper motor driver to drive the stepper motor. I have zero knowledge of programming - other than the above, so please be patient with me.

Thank you all, in advance.

Talkiet

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#2344096 27-Oct-2019 12:45

Figuratively the first hit on Google :-)

https://www.arduino.cc/en/tutorial/stepperSpeedControl

Or this for how to do a revolution at a time.

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/StepperOneRevolution

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

PeterW2

46 posts

Geek

#2344097 27-Oct-2019 12:54

Hello 'N'

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately, it's not a speed control I am looking for.

I need to input the Arduino with a (programmable number of) digital input(s) (from a sensor, probably optical) to move the stepper motor a programmable number of steps. Then, after 'x' amount of (either input pulses, or output pulses) I want the motor to change direction for an equal number of steps. I have had some difficulty trying to put my thoughts into words so my project plan would make sense. I have already spent many hours hunting the internet to try and find a similar program to what I want to achieve.

Peter W

Talkiet

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#2344098 27-Oct-2019 12:58

Look at the second link I updated my post with - it shows how to do a revolution. The other links on the same pages show how to do steps. As for taking an input from a sensor - there are literally thousands of tutorials on that.

I think if you are hoping to find a program already written to do what you are after you're probably out of luck. The good news is the individual components of the program are trivial.

- Write a program to read inputs from a switch and print the output

- Write a program to read inputs from the optical sensor you want and print the output

- Write a program to move a stepper via typed in (or hardcoded) values

- Combine programs :-)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Talkiet

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#2344100 27-Oct-2019 13:01

Of course with digital inputs, you'll also have to learn about debouncing the input so you don't count single events multiple times.

Welcome to the rabbithole :-)

Just start small and simple, and build it out. Sure that's not a great way to design an application but in this case it'll be fine and it's a good way to learn.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

PeterW2

46 posts

Geek

#2344102 27-Oct-2019 13:14

MMMmmm

Thank you for your help.

I think my (huge) lack of patience has got in the way here, as the need to wind this coil (with approximately 30,000 turns) has come about quite suddenly (I now have about 6 of these coils to wind) which lead me to 'dream' up the plan to make a coil winder. I have very limited knowledge of the Arduino, although I do have an experimental board here to play with. However, I don't have a stepper motor, driver, or optical sensor as yet.