Hey group!
I want to start a project that is a simple control of a single stepping motor that will be programmed via an Arduino and I have some questions if anyone can advise on...
if I use a nema 23 stepper motor, do I need to buy a specific stepper drive card/controller? or do I just use an Arduino and some simple circuit with it?
i.e is there a benefit to buying a prebuilt controller? or a benefit over making my own controller?
I would like to control the speed with a foot pedal so that it is off when not pressing the pedal, then the speed will go from zero to max speed the pedal can give when fully pressed.
but ideally, I would like to set the speed range via a second rotary potentiometer.
the idea is that if I set the rotary pot to a low setting then the range of the foot pedal will be really slow driving the stepper motor so it will give fine control at really slow Revs perhaps 1 to 10 rpm and then by adjusting the rotary pot the pedal might give say 1 rpm to 50 rpm then a higher setting say 1 to 200 rpm etc... and the wider the range set on the rotary pot the less control the foot pedal will have.
is this possible?
does anyone know where to purchase good but low-cost potentiometer foot pedals?
can I use any Arduino board? this project is pretty basic so I was thinking of using a nano..?
do nema stepping motors have a duty cycle? or can the run all day if wanted?
Nema is a mechanical specification telling nothing about the electronics involved.
For every stepper a driver is needed. What driver depends on the stepper used.
For speed control DC motors are often better. 200 RPM ought to be achievable. It depends on the stepper and a bit on the driver.
Again, meaningless, home made name.
Check the datasheet and the heat/temperature diagrams.
Depending the stepper load is not too high you can run them for days or weeks.
The driver to get would be one of the DM 556 or similar.
I wanted to use a second motor on my wood lathe for very slow speeds and this along with a driver was what I used.
However you can also use and Arduino (pretty much any of them) to control the driver too.
As for foot pedals there are lots of cheap ones based on pots
You might want to give a few details about your project so people can get a better idea of what your needs are, and how to go about it.
thankyou for your reply, the reason for potentially using a stepping motor was for high torq and better control at really low speed around 1 to 10 RPM, I understand a geared dc motor will deliver but I think it might tend to creep a little when switching off as opposed to a dead stop when footpedal released.. but I am considering using a dc motor so it might end up being the solution.
At really low RPM You might be disturbed by just the stepping dependig onwhatthe steper load is. A mechanical play might produce a buzzing noise at certain RPM.
Using a geard DC motor it stopped so brutably fast that the motor flipped over.
Unless a DC motor has some form of brake then yes you will most probably suffer "over run" which can be undesirable in so many ways.
A stepper has a lot of advantages in that respect especially in regards to ACTUAL RPM where many DC motors tend to have fluctuations in the RPM or require a set amount of voltage to even rotate at all regardless of being geared or otherwise.
Again a lot comes down to the application you want to use it in ?
Please do tell us a little more about that ?
We are not looking to steal ideas but do require and understanding of what you are attempting to do.
Without that we could be providing you mis-information !