Asked
— Edited
Hi Everyone,
I was wondering your thoughts on using an EZB-V4 to drive a stepper motor such as the one attached.
Stepper Motor link
http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/12vstepper.jpg
Uploaded data for driver.....
Using 24V battery with a 12V regulator.
Dave
Anyway, if you search the forum for Stepper Motor, you will find that most have found it not to be worth the effort. Apparently, there are no driver boards that are as simple to interface with as H-bridges. Several have tried, and I don't think anyone has had enough success to make it worth it, particularly when there are plenty of good DC motors and h-bridges, including ones that can read position encoders (Sabertooth with kangaroo or Roboclaw are two examples).
Alan
A4988StepperMotorDriver.pdf
Are you telling me that the EZB would have a difficult time driving this stepper motor driver board?
Dave
If you find one that is compatible, please let us know...
Dave
I believe a driver such as the A4988 delivers that sequence automatically. In an age of a million 3D printers, stepper motor control has been dialed in quite nicely, and all the driving information has been open sourced since the RepRap if I'm not mistaken.
Here's the signals you would need to send to the driver from the ez-b:
STEP: This needs to be a 0V to 3.3V signal. Each rising edge of this signal will cause one step (or microstep) to be taken.
DIR (Direction): This needs to be a 0V to 3.3V signal. The level of this signal (high/low) is sampled on each rising edge of STEP to determine which direction to take the step (or microstep).
Most of the other pins, such as reset, enable, MS1, etc need to be pulled high or low accordingly, but don't require a signal from the ez-b, only the two are needed.
I agree with what you say. According to the A4988, it should work with the 3.3V PWM logic provided by the EZB. I will have to write some scripts to actually move the stepper motor. But the hardware is pretty straight forward. I will be providing power to the stepper through an external 24V battery [with a 12V reg].
I shouldn't be needing very high accuracy in steps so I do not think I will need the microsteps. Nice to have though just in case needed later.
My requirement is for a dual direction, high torque, slow speed application. Stepper motors are designed for that.
Dave
http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=2742
Jstarne1......I do like the TI stepper controller. A bit more expensive but the driver IC looks better. I may also add the heat sink as you have done.
Thanks again!
Dave
Check out specifically post #18.
Alan
Edit: Two days later. Junior seems really depressed now because no one seems to like him except DJ.
Junior is great..... so quiet!
Please make a project showcase
Thanks,
Frank