Control of a stepper motor

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hello,
I would like to use an Arduino to control a stepper motor output stage with a clock and direction signal. Does anyone have any experience of how long the step signal needs to be for standard output stages? Does anyone know of a way to generate the step signal in the required length without a delay?
Thanks
Hans

2

The step pulse us usually 10 micro seconds or longer. Use delaymicroseconds(10);

2 Likes
3 
delayMicroseconds(10); // upper case M
1 Like
4

Thanks.

5

So are you doing this through a stepper motor control board or through, e.g., a power transistor connected to a GPIO on the Arduino?

I ask because I am wondering what the purpose of specific board is if a 10+ millisecond pulse to a transistor alone will cause a step?

I know there are things like micro-stepping that probably get complex. But, if we are talking about "no frills" is the:

Arduino GPIO ---> Power Transistor* --> Device (load)

Acceptable, or is there something bad about that?

* Or a TRIAC if the load is something that can use AC, such as a heating element rather than a motor.