Building a 3D zoetrope

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello together,
i´m a product designer and i wanna build a professional 3D zoetrope by myself. Unfortuntely im missing the expert knowledge for chosing the electronic components. I´d be very happy if i´ll get some help here in the forum. For understanding, here a video with the desired effect.
(Blooms: Strobe Animated Sculptures Invented by John Edmark - YouTube). For my application i need a speed of 1 turn per second, with a strobe speed of 25 turns per second. The 3D-Object itself wont be that heavy (f.e. ~500g). Thats why i guess the stepper doesnt need to be incredibly strong.

The whole construction need to be quite resilient to withstand daily power on/offs and an overall lifespan of around 2 years. After the research, my structure looks like this: A stepper with driver gets connected to an external power supply (12V). This stepper drives a potters wheel with bearing through a cambelt. On top of the wheel the 3D object is placed. With the arduino circuit i want to control the speed of the wheel and the strobe effect via two potentiometers. Above the object is an led stripe (12V, ~10W) attached, which is also controlled by the arduino, making it blink.

At the moment i got it running with a stepper from an old scanner (M42SP-13NK, 12V, 600mA, 4,2Ohm/Phase), together with the H-Bridge L293D (4,5-36V, 600mA) and a power adaptor (12V, 1250mA). It also works with the speed controlling by a potentiometer. But the L293D gets really hot, because (i think) the stepper or the power adaptor is too strong. So i need a different combination of stepper, driver and power supply.

Therefore the question, which components you guys would recommend for my utilization? Especially the stepper needs the strength to power up the wheel and the 3D object to the appropriate speed. Which power supply do i need to provide enough for the motor and the leds together?

Do maybe these parts fit better?

  • Stepper: Nema 17, 17HS192004S1 (59Ncm, 2.0A/Phase, 1.4ohm/Phase)
  • Driver: DRV8825 (8,2-45V, up to 2,2A/Phase, current regulation)

I hope you guys are also willing to help a newbie :wink:
Greetings, Jona

2

Yes. Use the DRV8825 driver. The L293 is completely unsuitable for a stepper.

3

Hey,
yeah then ill most likely get the Pololu DRV8825. But i also heard about the SilentStepStick TMC2100, which is used for very smooth and quiet stepper control. Which sounds perfect for my usage. Anyone has experience with that module?

Anyone here who can estimate if the stepper 17HS192004S1 is strong enough for my needs? And which power adaptor i should get? Or do i need to get a laboratory supply and chose the power adaptor later, when i exactly know how much stepper + led draw?

Thanks in advance,
Jona

4

12V 1.25A is a pretty decent power supply for a 2A stepper. The DRV8825 (and others) will boost the current as they drop the voltage. I would recommend a fairly large capacitor as close to the stepper module as possible. Even a battery would be good, to help the power supply cope with the very sharp steps that the module will demand from it. Or go bigger on the power supply - 2A or more. More volts can also help.

The DRV8825 will get the stepper quite smooth with the micro-step operation. Find the micro-step that works for you. Smaller is always better until the frequency of steps gets so high that the Arduino can't keep up. You also have the advantage that you can synchronise the strobe to the stepper, so if it wobbles around a little on each step, you're always catching it at the exact same point in the wobble.

Here's a great calculator for stepper speed, voltage etc...
http://www.daycounter.com/Calculators/Stepper-Motor-Calculator.phtml