Moving a Stepper motor with values input from Matlab

Projects Programming
1

So this is my code that takes an input from the matlab and opens it up in serial monitor, This then goes through some calculation in arduino and if the steps calculated is more than 10 then an LED will turn on.

I also want the values inputted from serial to move the stepper motors, and they will be moving with different speeds and different steps.Also they are different stepper motors, one with accuracy of about 0.018 degree per step and another accuracy of 0.056.

[1] How can I implement the movement of the stepper motors given these conditions?

[2] I have attempted something in the last few lines of my code to move the motors? Is this wrong, or will it work?

(Also i only want it to run once and wait for the next input from serial monitor input, I dont want it to loop forever on the same step value)

I hope you can understand this.

CODE

#include <Stepper.h>

int ledPin=13;

String readString, data1,data2;
Stepper stepper1(6000, 2,3);
Stepper stepper2(20000,8,9);
 
void setup() 
{
  pinMode(13,OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);

  stepper1.setSpeed(100);
  stepper2.setSpeed(100);
}
 
void loop() {


 while (Serial.available()) {
   delay(10);  
   if (Serial.available() >0) {
     char c = Serial.read();  //gets one byte from serial buffer
     readString += c; //makes the string readString
   } 
 }

 if (readString.length() >0) {
     Serial.println(readString); //see what was received

     data1 = readString.substring(1, 7);
     data2 = readString.substring(7, 14);

     double intPan = data1.toFloat();
     double intTilt = data2.toFloat();

    double DegreesPan= (intPan/1000)-360;
    double DegreesTilt= (intTilt/1000)-360;

    double Steps1= DegreesPan/(0.018*2);
    double Steps2= DegreesTilt/(0.018*2);
    

   if(Steps1>10){
    
    digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
    }
else{  

    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}

   
     
     stepper1.step(Steps1); 
     stepper2.step(Steps2);
     
  
   readString = "";  
 } 

}
2

Go check the basic examples on using serial

This is likely to fail

data1 = readString.substring(1, 7);
     data2 = readString.substring(7, 14);

As When you exit your while loop you have no guarantee that you have received everything you wanted and thus all the computations you do afterwards might be totally wrong.

You need to make sure you have received your full command before proceeding.

The steppers will move without blocking your code so you don't need to worry about that part.

3

Have a look at the examples in Serial Input Basics - simple reliable ways to receive data. There is also a parse example.

It is not a good idea to use the String (capital S) class as it can cause memory corruption in the small memory on an Arduino. Just use cstrings - char arrays terminated with 0.

...R
Stepper Motor Basics
Simple Stepper Code