I’m building an open hardware (video) camera slider (called [MakerSlider) using the Arduino UNO. I’ve found that the noise produced by my NEMA 17 stepper motor is more than I’d expected. Now it isn’t “loud” exactly, but when you have a microphone mounted next to the motor, it’s pretty much unacceptable if you’re going to use the audio from the same recording.
In a future design, I do plan on moving the motor away from the camera by mounting it on the end, but even still that would mean reduced noise on one end of the slider, and more noise near the motor side of the slider.
Ideally, I’d just like to use a silent stepper motor, but from what I can tell, this isn’t a common request. There appear to be some remarkable commercial (read: very expensive) stepper motor drivers that simulate an analog voltage wave (see [this youtube video and the [product page). The beauty of this seems to be a truly silent stepper motor movement.
Has anyone seen this kind of stepper motor driver before? Is it something that can be achieved with off-the-shelf parts, or am I out of my league here (I’m a software engineer, not a hardware engineer :)?
Also, if you have any other ideas for achieving a “silent” stepper motor I’m all ears
What you want to do is commonly known as microstepping. And most stepper motor controllers can do this in some form or another. Instead of full on/off or reverse current through the coils, the steppermotor controller sends current waveforms approximating a sine wave into one coil and a cosine wave into the other. Depending on the microstepping resolution this can be silent and smooth. But mechanical friction might also cause it to skip a few microsteps.
Interesting. I didn’t realize this is the same thing as microstepping.
I’m actually using the grbl library for my movement, along with grblShield, and the shield (which acts as the motor driver) does [8x microstepping according to the docs.
Do realise that the vibrations also travel through the structure of your device. Stiffening or adding dampening might change the vibration response and make it less audible. Something else on it might put that air in motion.
First I teach Digital Filmmaking at our local Community College and now I’m working on something similar, not a slider.
First don’t even try to use the mic’s on the camera. Use an external mic.; get the mic as close as you can to your subject and away from slider motors. Borrow one and try it out.
Thank you, Elevator 4,I had decides to use an open servo motor because I needed the electronic feedback anyway.
Canadaduane keep me posted on how your project is doing,
