ROB-13656 stepper + Big Easy Driver

Robotics
1

Hi,

I am trying to set up the Big Easy Driver + the ROB-13656 stepper motor. I want to use the stepper motor to slowly accelerate a shaft and pulley up to a relatively low velocity and then hold at that velocity.

I set up the Big Easy Driver according to the manual on the Sparkfun website and powered it with a variable power supply. When I ran the Arduino code on the Big Easy Driver hookup guide, I was able to run option 1 (turn at default microstep mode) and otion 2 (reverse direction at default microstep mode), but when I activated option 3 (turn at 1/16th microstep mode) the motor start to chatter and shake. When I activated options 1 and 2 again, I could no longer get the motor to advance.

Can you help me figure out what is going on with my setup? I have looking at the troubleshooting notes in the comments but it does not look like I’ve wired it or powered it incorrectly.

Thanks much!

2

Try inspecting the Big Easy Driver to see if there is any damage to the traces or the main IC. Did you adjust the current potentiometer at all?

3

There does not appear to be any visual damage to the main IC. I did not adjust the current potentiometer between runs of the Arduino program. Prior to running the program, I checked the voltage at the test point just to see which direction the pot turned, but ended up resetting to the position it was in when I received the device.

4

Can you post a picture of your driver and set up?

5

What are you using as a power source and how much current can it deliver? Does your power source have an adjustable current output in addition to an adjustable voltage output?

6

Chris and Brandon, thank you for your quick replies. You can find images of my setup here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … sp=sharing With regard to the power supply, because it has a current limiting feature, I have turned the current knob all the way to the right.

7

From you images it appears you have several units. Does your other units behave the same way?

8

One board a put too much current through once. A second board began behaving in a similar manner while I was experimenting with the AccelStepper code. Note that with this second board, I was able to run all of the functions in the example code as well as the AccelStepper examples that appear on Brian Schmalz’s website. This third board (the one that originated this thread) should be in the same configuration as the board #2, but I have not gotten similar results…