3dGuy
Canada
Asked
— Edited
Hi, Just wondering if EZ-B V4 and ARC would drive this type of servo/ stepper?, >> link
Related Hardware EZ-B v4
Hi, Just wondering if EZ-B V4 and ARC would drive this type of servo/ stepper?, >> link
Does this mean that AutoPosition couldn’t be used?
but I am confused by the post with the videos. The product page doesn’t show that there’s an included driver. The videos show steppers with included drivers.
Which ones are you getting? With included drivers or without?
but if you’re will have the drivers, that means they can be driven by the cheapest and smallest ardunio that you can find. I’m thinking arduino nano or micro. One of those.
once you tell me what stepper motor with embedded driver you’re getting, I can whip up a robot skill and some code for ya
We can make them controlled all by a single serial wire. So each would have a unique id. That way wiring would be quite easy
I'm sure this is the motor we'd want to get:
Stepper motor with driver board.
One thing I noticed and wonder about. It looks like the encoder is internal and signal is sent to the driver board.. I don't see anyway to tap into it to get feedback (Maybe the wires between the driver board and the motor?) It looks like it's there for the use for the driver board to keep the motor in step and give more accuracy when in closed loop mode. How would ARC know where the motor is on start up to give proper position commands?
EDIT:
It looks like we are looking at two different offerings of this motor. The first one the OP pointed to in their original post has no driver board. However it has two cords. One for power and one to tap into the encoder. The second has a driver board but no cord coming out to use the encoder.
Motor - No driver board but has encoder
Motor - With driver board but unsure how to tap into the internal encoder
Here's the specs on the pinouts on the motor with the driver board. Perhaps tapping into the encoder is on one of these headers?
Bipolar Stepper Motors and Unipolar Stepper Motors
28BYJ-48 Unipolar Stepper with ULN2003 and the Bipolar Stepper with L298N H-Bridge
Is there a control in ARC to use stepper motors?
The answer is YES if using a custom Movement Panel or a script combined with an Arduino, and you do it yourself. Again, you can build into ARC anything ever ever ever ever ever. You just have to do it yourself if it's not already supported directly.
But if your question is for a Plug'n'Play solution, there is no such answer for stepper motors. It would help if you defined the question better, EZAng. It would help if you asked what stepper motor driver you will be using - because that's what matters. Again, the answer is YES to any stepper motor driver, but you'll most likely have to do it yourself.
Solutions
1) the ideal Plug'n'Play solution would be to use the Polulu Tik that I continually mention in this thread. It is the complete stepper motor driver and will work with absolutely any stepper motor. The only issue is cost.
2) The second solution would be to use a stepper motor with an embedded driver combined with an Arduino. You need an Arduino because the stepper motor driver needs a continuous pulse instructing the motor coils to rotate the shaft. You "could" do it with an EZB directly, but that's a lot of processing for such a small job. Why would you want to use a 2.8ghz computer to send a pulse to a stepper motor when you could have a $3 Arduino do it?
3) The last option is using an Arduino, a custom driver, and a stepper motor. This is what Jeremie mentioned above, but it's also a lot of work. You'd need A LOT of components for moving a single motor. So you end up with a shoebox full of components and a rat's nest of wires to drive a motor. In jeremie's case, that's all he needed, so it worked fine.
You'll have to read my answer above because your question is still missing information. The L298 is useless without some way to instruct the steps. While you "could" send GPIO commands to move steps in ARC with a script, it doesn't make sense. You'd have to write a script that turns on and off digital ports on an EZB that will consume a bunch of CPUs on a computer. That's like using a sledgehammer on a thumbtack.
Your question should be...
Then the answer is YES. You can write some custom firmware on the Arduino to control the hbridge. Then, you can use a script in ARC to send commands to the Arduino. It's work, but there's no other way around it.
I was not asking a question, just stating what I used in the past.
I thought maybe I missed this.
I was just looking this up on your website.
I used the search, steppers motors
The main reason each stepper motor driver needs an Arduino is how it works. The stepper motor driver needs a "pulse" for every step. The micro on the Arduino needs to be pulsing gpio pins at an accurate, constant, and high rate.
But when you order Arduino ATTiny or nana or micro from places like Alibaba, they're $3 each. So it's not a big deal.
However, if you're adding an encoder to the stepper motor, that is where things get a little more challenging. It's still possible, but the Arduino _needs_ to have two hardware interrupts. That means the gpio pins can interrupt the main execution of code when the gpio state changes. This allows the micro to count the encoder ticks.
So no matter how you look at it, you need an Arduino or some other microcontroller. It makes sense to use an Arduino, but if you find a cheaper microchip pic or something, it will work if you can write the code yourself - but Arduino has existing libraries and such to use.
If steppers are being used for wheels/tracks, I would discourage it because steppers are only have high torque at high voltages. High voltages means more batteries or a larger power supply. IMHO DC gear motors would be much more effective for a mobile robot.
Some hardware advice, it doesn't matter what electronic solution you use, every solution that uses stepper motors is going to have a lot of wires, cable management will be important. This is why many machines use wire loom, wire ways, wire tracks or cables carriers to manage the wires.
Even cnc or 3D printers need a limit switch for calibration. But there’s not a lot of weight in a 3D printer so they don’t go out of alignment easily.
im sure high end cnc machines use encoders to ensure they don’t go out of alignment from the weight.
Even the high-end CNC-style machines that I've used, Professional laser cutters, use break beam sensors or limit switches to find the home position and re-calibrate its position.
Now that I think of it I have seen encoder strips used on Epilog lasers so some closed-loop feedback is used in enterprise solutions. But we are talking about $25K+ machines here. Is 3dGuy building this kind of machine?
*Edit: Usually closed-loop feedback with steppers is used to correct belt slippage on high-speed precision applications, like raster engraving with a laser cutter or high-speed pick and placing.
I just know that with steppers you're not going to get more torque than servos, that's not what they are designed for. They don't have gears (well...a minority do) and they are built for speed and precision. In order to get the needed torque, high voltages and huge stepper motors are needed. Form factor also becomes a big issue at that point.
*Edit: Heat from stepper motors is also something to keep in mind if you are using them in 3D printed applications, some can get hot enough to melt the plastic.
Maybe an alternative option are geared dc motor assemblies with built in encoders. Then you could turn any of them into a servo immediately
60 RPM HD Premium Planetary Gear Motor w/Encoder
Hey Dave
hope this is not too far off topic, but
I use the 416 RPM Premium Planetary Gear Motor from ServoCity
SPECS
Voltage (Nominal) 12V
Voltage Range (Recommended) 3V - 12V
My EZB controller with 7.4V runs it well with the L298N Motor Driver Controller Board
$25.49
It essentially turns up to 127 stepper motors into servos.
I haven't tested it because I have no stepper motors with me. But in theory, it should work, albeit requiring some tweaks for speed and acceleration. I ordered a few cheap steppers, and I'll wire them up to a nano when they get here next week to make any necessary changes. But, it will work with any stepper motor.
That robot skill and respective Arduino firmware will work with any stepper motor driver you can throw at it.
After considering Jeremie's feedback, he's right about the encoder. I'm not sure what the point of the encoder is unless expecting the stepper to fail to move. If the stepper fails to move, there are many more significant problems. However, a simple limit switch to recalibrate the position is easy enough done.