URGENT Arduino and Stepper Motors

Development Boards Arduino
1

So I am doing this project and part of it was building a home built conveyor, I am practically learning electronics and programming alone and I’ve been at it for some time, its a slow but steady process.

However unfortunately as stupid as I might seem, when it came to calculating the torque required to move the conveyor, there was a miscalculation and now that I have come to terminate the project, the motor was not strong enough. It has to be finished within a month and I live on a small island without suppliers. I plan on using this motor;

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10847

But before I spend €50 on express postage, I wanted to ask if anyone can guide me on how to wire this to an Arduino! (drivers? shields? anything!)

I managed to do the circuitry on all my components but unfortunately I am running out of time and I am now BEGGING for help.

I am not being lazy I have tried my best but this unfortunate event has put me in a time pressing situation and I could use all the help I can get.

2

Which motor shield are you using? That motor seems to take too much current for the Adafruit one.

3

Well, that is a lot of amps. I guess you could wire up a bunch of heavy duty MOSFETS to the outputs to drive them and then find a suitable software.

4

solid state relays. Simple. Logic level in. Switch 20A of AC power. Cost $10 or so On line.

I have some Fotek SSR25-DA… ordered from China. Really low cost. Running for a year, on/off 10 times a day.

http://electrontubestore.com/index.php? … 7d208d10d9

PS: why the thread title URGENT! ? Call 911?

5

Why spend $10 on a relay from China when you could use $2 or $3 MOSFETs from Digikey in the US?

6

Holy smokes look what I found: [L6470 Stepper Driver Breakout. 3Amps with 8-45 V. Voltage an issue but otherwise a compatible match.](http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10859)

7

Joeisi:
Voltage an issue…

Why would that be? :doh:
8

Spark Fun has stated that you can’t reach the max current with their L6470 driver breakout board (I’ve got 2 on order to see how far I can push them). But I’m sure those boards will drive your motor plenty good.

Another (cheaper) option is the Big Easy Driver, also from SparkFun. It will run your motor just fine too, and I’ve got lots of Arduino examples up at http://www.schmalzhaus.com/EasyDriver/E … mples.html to get you up and running quickly.

*Brian

9

Cheers guys, I was just about to ask if I couple that motor with the big easy and a 12V adapter would it work? The motor is 3V but you can run a motor on up to 20x its rated voltage. So would it be safe to use a 12V supply, and a big easy? The thing is that it would draw 2A at 3V right? So if I use 12V its going to draw more than 2A and the BigEasy is rated for 2A tops so thats a problem correct?

10

Features:

Bi-polar Microstepping Driver

2A/Phase Max

Max Motor Drive Voltage: 35V

On-board 5V/3.3V Regulation

Those are the specs of the BigEasy, the 5V/3.3V regulation means that I can tune the 12V supply down to 3.3V?

11

For all of the above and not seeing the Big Easy Driver: D’oh!

12

Features:

Bi-polar Microstepping Driver

2A/Phase Max

Max Motor Drive Voltage: 35V

On-board 5V/3.3V Regulation

Those are the specs of the BigEasy, the 5V/3.3V regulation means that I can tune the 12V supply down to 3.3V?

13

To get full performance (in terms of its rated torque and speed) out of a stepper motor, you need to operate it at least 3-4x its rated voltage - in your case use 12v or more. The 3.3V/5V output is used only for the logic supplies. Current is limited (in the case of the A4988 chip in the BigEasy) via sense resistors and setting the appropriate registers in the case of the L6470.

14

The 5V/3.3V regulation means that you can run the Easy Driver or Big Easy Driver from logic inputs (i.e. what connects to the Step and Direction input pins) that are 5V or 3.3V. (you just solder a jumper to switch between them.) That spec doesn’t have anything to do with the motor.

*Brian