PWM/HPWM Stepper Motor Controller

[DavyJones]

I am interested in following your project. It's nice to see a real application being developed.

Thanks for posting

Sounds great I will keep posting to the thread as I go through my project... btw I am using a 12F683 since I had one laying around after my last project and I don't really need much for this. I'm setting up the stepper motor and about to give it a try in a few minutes.

David

[DavyJones]

Mark you obviously have experience with this controller (I hope) I am stuck with the connections to ena-, ena+, dir-, dir+ and pul-, pul+
I was assuming ena went to - and ena+ went to + dir - to - and dir+ to + and pul- to - and for pul+ I connected that to the pic to send the 1 and 0
I'm trying to find an example on the web haven't found one yet i am sure I am wrong as the stepper does not spin

[DavyJones]

Mark you obviously have experience with this controller (I hope) I am stuck with the connections to ena-, ena+, dir-, dir+ and pul-, pul+
I was assuming ena went to - and ena+ went to + dir - to - and dir+ to + and pul- to - and for pul+ I connected that to the pic to send the 1 and 0
I'm trying to find an example on the web haven't found one yet i am sure I am wrong as the stepper does not spin

Mark, Never mind I got it... the 12F683 did not like ROTOR=1 and ROTOR=0 I needed to high ROTOR and low ROTOR
it's spinning now going to try and make it smoother and faster mess around with those a bit

[DavyJones]

Mark, so I have been messing around with the time and seems to work pretty smooth. I am running 12v power supply and have the controller set to 1.5a and 1600 pulse per revolution. It is very smooth and easily see how to adjust the timing to speed it up or slow it down. One thing at these settings there is not much torque. I can grab the spindle and dont have to hold to tight to get it to not turn and growl at me. Motor says it is rated at 2.8amps but doesn't list the voltage but many people are saying 24v is optimum and can run up to 48 volts. If I up the current on the driver will that give me more torque or do I have to also up the voltage. At this configuration I doubt this will move my parts on the converyer once I have it built.
Thanks

[mark_s]

You are making a lot of progress. Increase the current setting, just monitor the motor for excessive heat while experimenting. 12 volts is on the low side for what you are doing. For small projects I have used old laptop wall supplies. They are usually around 18v at 3amps. You can find them in the thrift shops for cheap.

[DavyJones]

Mark thanks.... I was looking at power supplies online last night. Do switching type power supplies present any problems for the stepper motor? I see quite a few cheap ones online and some even have 24v/12v/5v output which would be perfect for my project without have to have any type of step down converters. 24v for stepper, 12v for solenoids and 5v for pic and accessories. I've probably pitched to many old pc's with perfectly good power supplies in them over the years whats wrong with me.... I just re-read your post I've got boxes of old laptop power supplies around here I just found an old dell one that is 19v 3 amp

Thanks
David

[DavyJones]

I know we are getting a little off topic with regards to PIC's and Picbasic I hope that's ok my project overall is dependent on the PIC and the programming needed.

Sorry about the noise in the background my wife was watching TV.


I'm thinking of something like this to power the overall project which needs 3 different voltages.
Then the step down for the other 2 both are relatively inexpensive.