Accellstepper help

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hi I'm new to arduino and c programming I'd like to start a project with a stepper motor and a spark fun easy driver, I've done a few tutorials and have some examples of accellstepper library codes.

As I have little experience I am finding it difficult to make my motor behave the way I want.

I'm looking to drive the stepper in a clock wise direction when I hold button a and the drive counter clockwise when I hold button b.

Is their any tutorials that explain how I can achieve this. I have a list of commands from the accellstepper website but I cannot find how to use them.

Thanks for the advice, ash.

2

From what I can see that driver board just needs step and direction signals from the Arduino.

Set direction High or Low depending on the direction you want.
Make a code loop that repeats N times and which contains
set step HIGH
wait for 800msecs
set step LOW
wait for 800msecs

It should move the motor through N steps. 800msecs works with the stepper motors I have. I need to increase the voltage to the motors to get them to go significantly faster. You could try different values.

...R

3

I'm not sure how to add that to my code this is what I've scrapped up so far from a bunch of tutorials.

#include <AccelStepper.h>

AccelStepper stepper(1,3,2); //1 means a stepper driver (with Step and Direction pins) step pin = 3 dir pin = 2
int forward = 7;    //pin number for the up button
int backward = 8;  //pin number for the down button

 

void setup() {
 
        Serial.begin(9600);           // set up Serial library at 9600 bps
        stepper.setMaxSpeed(500);
        stepper.setSpeed(500);
 pinMode(forward, INPUT);
 pinMode(backward, INPUT);
 
}

void loop() {

        
        Serial.println(digitalRead(forward));    // Read the pin and display the value
        Serial.println(digitalRead(backward));   // Read the pin and display the value
       

 if (digitalRead(forward) == HIGH) {   // check if the input is HIGH (button pushed)
           stepper.move(+10);
           stepper.run();
   }
        
  
        if (digitalRead(backward) == HIGH) {   // check if the input is HIGH (button pushed)
            stepper.move(-10); 
            stepper.run();       
   }
 

}

With this I have 2 problems that I know of, first the direction doesn't change when I use the backwards button. Secondly the stepper runs for longer then me holding the button.

Using the serial screen I see that the input for both forward and backward stay high after pressing them for about 3-5 seconds, I assume this is why the stepper runs on when I release the button

I'm wanting it to only move while I hold the button down.

I could just use dc motors for this but as my design is for a robotic arm, once I have it built and moving I want to automate it with so I think steppers would be best for this.

4

I didn't mean you to add the stuff to your code but rather use it instead of your code until you are confident of getting the motors to work.

...R