help with coding for a stepper motor

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
18

Photo-Tom:

  • While the stepper is actively rotating there should be a delay in making it rotate again for a certain amount of time, (say 5 seconds).

That all seems clear, apart from the piece I have quoted. Do you mean that when it moves 200 steps CW it should wait 5 seconds before the 200 CCW steps?

OR, do you mean that after it has done one out-and-back it should not start another one for at least 5 seconds?

Assuming the latter, I think I would write the program like this pseudo code ...

if PIR is detected 
   PIRdetected = true
   motorDirection = 'F'
    motorMoving = false

if PIRdetected == true
  if motorMovng == false
     if motorDirection == 'F'
         moveTo 200
         motorMoving = true
     else    // meaning motorDirection == 'R'
         moveTo -200
         motorMoving = true
  
  if motorMoving == true and distanceToGo == 0
     motorMoving = false
     if motorDirection = 'F'
           motorDirection = 'R'
     else
          PIRdetected = false
          motorDirection = 'F'
    

   stepper.run()

I have not built the 5 second interval into the above.
I have used 'F' to mean CW and 'R' to mean CCW

...R