Stepper motors: software examples, hardware examples

sci.electronics.design stepper controllers: software examples, hardware examples

Can anyone suggest application notes or software source or circuit diagrams or texts about stepper motor controllers with means of sensing current through the coils & measuring the voltages there also and using that info to determine when the stepping pulse should occur? There exist lots of data about driving steppers according to predetermined and fixed actions, but very little about sensing steppers and driving them accordingly. Any info about the latter would be appreciated.

Hul

Reply to
Hul Tytus
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Usually that means that you're dealing with Weird Science and you shouldn't go there. Or it means that there's some untapped market potential and you should patent what you do...

This sort of thing depends on the back EMF generated by the motor. That's going to be fairly complicated in a stepper, because the usual stepper features permanent magnets, significant amounts of variable reluctance, and only two coils, which may preclude you from just sensing voltage on the unpowered coil the way you can with a brushless DC motor.

Then, you have the problem that after you get it working for Stepper Motor A, you may find that Stepper Motor B is different enough that nothing you just learned applies.

I hope this healthy dose of optimism from Wescott Design Services has helped to make your day a pleasurable and satisfying one!

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Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
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Tim Wescott

This is relatively inexpensive and easy to implement (we were using

6MHz Z80's, at the time... i.e., about 1.5 fetches per microsecond)
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Reply to
Don Y

Kewl. It sounds like I may not have been optimistic enough in my response to the OP!

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Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

We used this in a printer (to control the "carriage") -- so it was important that it be reliable (you want to know that you have taken X steps and, therefore, the carriage is currently positioned for the 3rd column of the Nth character on the line, etc.)

Reply to
Don Y

Grrrr... I should have read the damn thing instad of just relying on google to find me the right one!

Reply to
Don Y

Thanks Don - whether I use the the methods or not, they both will serve as excellent education. The numbers are helpful for searching too.

Hul

D> > sci.electronics.design

Reply to
Hul Tytus

I have seen it done. It needs heavy trimming for each motor variant

For commercial stuff, look into IRF imotion

Cheers

Klaus

Reply to
Klaus Kragelund

? 2015?5?2???? UTC+

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Reply to
zwgearbox

Tacking your ads onto obsolete posts (look at the DATE for god's sake!) is incredibly tacky -- almost slimy. To the point where, if I were looking for an offshore source for motors, I would actively avoid your company.

If you want to promote your products, then look at the questions, and when a problem comes up that could be fulfilled by one of your products, _mention_ your product without _pushing_.

Better yet, answer the questions in a general, helpful way, and append a _short_ tagline pointing to your contact information.

And keep in mind that few of the posters on this group do high-volume work, so the market that we present is probably for quantities of 100 or less.

Unless, of course, you're pissed off at your boss and you want the company to have a group of people out there who won't buy from it, even

-- then just keep on making Schenzhen Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics a pariah.

--
www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

The Chinese guy probably doesn't speak any English.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

But one can hope.

It would be an interesting dance for a component vendor to use USENET as a marketing platform without pissing people off. But, there was a Xilinx apps engineer active on comp.fpga for years and years who did that.

Mostly because he'd happily answer generic questions, and only mention Xilinx parts in the context of "this part will do that" rather than "you only ever want to use Xilinx", etc., etc.

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Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
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Reply to
Tim Wescott

If you're a contributing member of the community, it's reasonnable to cut you some slack. We all need to earn a living, after all. My sig has keywords for SEO purposes, for instance.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Peter Alfke. IIRC, there were a few complaints from DimBulb types but he was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful so no one paid them any attention. BTW, he was a bit more than an FAE. He was the director of product applications.

Reply to
krw

? UTC+8??6:16:01?Hul Tytus??? ??

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Google tells me that that would have been Peter Alfke - he was magic.

Remember his 1GHz counter in a Xilinx programmable part?

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Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
Bill Sloman

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