I have a project that I am planning that I think Arduino would be perfect for, but I would like to make sure that is correct and then would appreciate input on which board (or board+shield set) would be best suited to the job.
I would need to be able to control three motors (one each for X, Y, Z axis) to move back/forth along a grid in 3d space, as well as a some way to attach a flow control sensor that would dictate when each position is done and ready to move to the next.
Pretty much any of them. I assume that these are stepper motors, so take a look at pololu motor drivers to run them. I wouldn't expect a flow sensor to take up many pins, so an Uno would do fine.
Good to know. Is that with or without the motor shield unit?
The arduino motor shield apparently will only drive a single stepper and I rather doubt that they stack, so just say no to that motor shield. You can wire up three (or more) of the Pololu (or other vendor's) driver boards to an Uno though.
Thanks for the clarification. Now I see what you're talking about (google search on Pololu to the rescue) and not needing the shield unit. Now I need to figure out what kind of motor/drive system I will be using to navigate the X Y Z motion. Thanks for the input!
So after a bit of digging, here is what I'm looking at:
This (or rather, something LIKE this) is my end goal:
To that end, I've ordered an Arduino Leonardo board as a base.
For movement I am considering (one set for each axis of motion):
This is the flow sensor I am considering: Swissflow | SF 800 Low Pressure Infrared Flow Meter
It looks like this should all function well on a 5v power supply, and the torque rating of the motor seems reasonable for my needs.
I have a question about the stepper driver though - it's called a 'stepper driver carrier' and I see reference to just 'stepper driver' in various places. Are they the same thing or am I missing out on a piece of equipment that would need to get brought into the mix?
I have a question about the stepper driver though - it's called a 'stepper driver carrier' and I see reference to just 'stepper driver' in various places. Are they the same thing or am I missing out on a piece of equipment that would need to get brought into the mix?
It's the same thing. They're just distinguishing between the stepper driver chip and the little board that they've mounted it on for you to make it easier to physically interface to other devices.
Cool, thanks for the info! Does the rest of it look OK - no mismatched power needs or anything?
kriegtiger:
Cool, thanks for the info! Does the rest of it look OK - no mismatched power needs or anything?
You really need one of the electronic/electrics experts for that question; I'd be wary of running a stepper rated for 3.8V at 5V personally though.
wildbill:
You really need one of the electronic/electrics experts for that question; I'd be wary of running a stepper rated for 3.8V at 5V personally though.
True, I've got a touch of electronics background but it's rusty. I was figuring that to make things match I'd need some resistors or some other buffer in there - the main thing was that all the ranges overlapped to allow for a sweet spot to be chosen - which seems likely to be the 3.8V of the motor, since that is the only static number compared to min/max for the other components. I'll hop on over to electronics and get some input there :] Thanks!