Multi stepping motor

I am running two stepping motors with an application. First one motor runs, then the second. I am using the PRODRIVER_MODE_SERIAL. When I run the application the first motor always runs but the second motor does not run all the time. I added a Serial.ptintln to the motor sequence and it shows that the stepSerial for the second motor is firing.

What could be the issue here? As I said this happens intermittently.

Are the motors the same wattage? Are they wired the same? What is your power supply?

The motor that runs without issue is a STEPPERONLINE Nema 14 Stepper Motor 0.9deg(400 Steps/rev) 0.4A 11Ncm/15.6oz.in Bipolar 4-Wires.

The one that will run intermittently is a Sparkfun ROB-09238.

They are wired as follows:

ARDUINO → PRODRIVERs (STEPPERONLINE)

D8 → STBY PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

D7 → EN PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

D6 → MODE0 PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

D5 → MODE1 PRODRIVER1 only (LATCH PIN 1)

D4 → MODE2 PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

D3 → MODE3 PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

D2 → ERR PRODRIVER1 and PRODRIVER2

ARDUINO → PRODRIVER2 (ROB 09238

D9 → MODE1 PRODRIVER2 only (LATCH PIN 2)

The power supply is a 12VDC 30 Amp

I have another STEPPERONLINE Motor, would you advise replacing the ROB with it so the motors are the same?

Thanks

Greg

Yes, that’d be the next step, especially if powering both motors from the single power source…and see if they behave similarly or not

Actually I just found the issue. My application was broken into various functions and the second motor didn’t seem to like that. I rewrote the application so that the motor sequence was all in one function and the issue disappeared.

Thanks for your help.

Greg

1 Like

Well thought I had it solved, but no. Both motors are on the same power source but only 1 motor runs at a time. The only thing I can think of trying is to run the second motor on custom pins and not in serial mode.

Greg