How to synchronize two steppers

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hey what's up guys,

I try to build an Arduino controlled coil winder. The used wire is very thin so I need thousands of windings (5000 - 10000). I want to use two stepper for this application, one stepper is turning the bobbin (target speed of revolution 2000rpm), the other stepper is moving the wire feeder (left <-> right).

I know that a DC motor for bobbin turning is maybe better but I still have two stepper available and I found a similar tool which is working with two stepper CNC Design Ltd Production Guitar Pickup Mini Coil Winder - YouTube

My application is the same! :smiley:

Some details of the needed functions:

  1. Measurement of rotational speed (bobbin winder) (Hall sensor)
  2. Synchronized movement of wire feeder (controlled by the number of revolutuions)
  • some calculations are necessary for this task
  1. Speed adjustment (wire feeder) at the reversal points, when changing the moving direction
  2. Arduino controlled by external PC (Serial connection necessary), or is there a better way to control the Arduino?
  3. Possibility to load/save the winding program to reproduce coils

Is an Arduino suitable for such an application or should I use an other microcontroller? If no, which kind of hardware should I use?

Thanks in advance,
Gogonfa

2

If the bobbin is being rotated by a stepper motor then there is no need to measure its speed - you will know it already.

And what really matters is to get the X-Y motor to make one step for every N steps of the bobbin motor - so the speed is probably completely irrelevant.

...R
Stepper Motor Basics
Simple Stepper Code

3

If the wire is thin, and the feed spool is heavy, you will need to design an un-winding mechanism, and give constant tension to the laying up mechanism. You will need to vary the speed of that, as the bobbin gets full. You will need to gradually speed up/decrease the bobbin speed. You will need to adjust the speed of the lay-up mechanism according to how thick the wire is, and the speed of the bobbin, of course, and take care how you handle the direction changes. But for small stuff, as in the video, it's not so critical, not very precise, so initially wing it, be prepared for a few bird nests. It's dead easy to get speeds, direction, number of turns using stepper motors.