hello, i am a mechanical designer developing what was a strictly mechanical device. i have been asked to parallel path an electronic version. this is completely foreign territory for me. unfortunately, we are a two person company and cannot afford a EE. i need to ramp up fast!
what i need to do is drive a stepper motor. but i need a force sensor somehow involved. when the force sensor sees X load the stepper motor must stop. when the force sensor sees less than X the motor must go again. if i had the option to make the motor stop at X load, reverse slightly, pause for some amount of time and then go forward again i would be very happy.
is arduino appropriate for this?
there seems to be many ways to get this done. i just don't have time to flush them all out. i really need to pick a path and start learning!
yes this is well suited for the arduino, of course the devil is in the details, like what kind of stepper, how much voltage / current it needs, what will you be using for a force sensor etc
Are you sure you need a stepper? Is precise positioning a goal here? If you are going to experience a resisting force it is possible the stepper will "lose steps" which defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.
thank you for your responses!
right now im playing with tekscan flexiforce sensors only because they are cheap (http://www.tekscan.com/flexiforce/flexiforce.html). i'm not married to any specific components right now... including stepper motors. always open to suggestions! i don't neccessarily need precise positioning. in fact, i have a bit of a space constraint and i'll need to do more work than the small steppers i've seen are capable of. the motor can be VERY slow. it would be nice to know how many revolutions whatever motor i use has completed but this is secondary.
I would suggest that you use a conventional DC motor and monitor the current. The current will increase with increasing load on the motor and thus act as your force sensor. However, if the motor has to be slow this would not work as any gearing would in effect isolate the current change with load. For sensing the position of the motor you could use a rotary shaft encoder. This gives pulses out as it turns, hence unlike the stepping motor if it slips then there are no pulses.