I am trying to control six stepper motor on one arduino uno. But i was quit confuse about which driver ic i hav to use , currently i was using ULN2004. i dnt wnt to use all motor at a time but i wnt to control them on one arduino.
But i was quit confuse about which driver ic i hav to use
Yes and so is everybody until you say what sort of motors you have.
Don't use a driver like a ULN2004 that requires four driver signals from the Arduino.
Use a driver board that only requires a Step and Direction signal. And then you DON'T use stepper library, you just send step and direction signals.
Like this:
But as Grumpy_Mike pointed out, we can't really help you 'til we know what you are using. That board requires 4, 6, or 8 wire stepper motors, can't use 5 wire steppers with it.
I am using unipolar motor , Its six wire stepper motor.
vaibhavmorye:
I am using unipolar motor , Its six wire stepper motor.
So what you have to understand is that a stepping motor with six wires can be wired up as a unipolar OR a bipolar motor and that if you are using it as a unipolar motor we need to know what current it is rated at and what the coil resistance is. This will determine what sort of driver you need. We also need to know what voltage you are proposing to drive these motors from.
If you are generating the switching pattern in the arduino then you need 6 * 4 = 24 outputs. This is more than some arduinos have, so you will need either three shift registers or two port expanders to switch the driver transistors or FETs
hey can u tell which ic will preferable...
vaibhavmorye:
hey can u tell which ic will preferable...
Are you actually reading any of these replies?
more understanding of the motor will help you understand the answer.
for a simple 4 wire motor controlled from an Arduino, you need to have each of the 4 pins go high or low. this happens in a sequence. so, you would need to use 4 pins per motor.
6 motors, 4 pins each, = 24 pins.
if you get a stepper motor driver like the one listed, it has Step and Direction inputs. so you send out a pulse that would be relative to the step, and the other pin will go either high or low - one would be forward, the other reverse. two pins are needed.
You would have more external hardware, but need only 12 pins.
if you do not want to buy or make a board that uses Step and Direction, then you have to do it in the Arduino.
since you do not have enough pins you could use shift registers or port expanders and control them with serial control to these other chips.
I have not looked at the mega at all, but it may have enough pins for your project.
Three pins, for Step, Direction, and Enable.
Or if you only ever move one stepper at a time, never, ever needing to move more than one at a time, then you wire all the Step and Direction to the same two pins on the Arduino, and use Enable to activate the stepper you wish to move.
So 6 steppers would be 14 ports total.