Stepper Driver

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

This is probably really easy but its got me stumped so hoping some folks out there can shed some light for me.

I'm trying to hook up an arduino to a standard step and direction based stepper motor driver. I've got some code that pulses a sequence of steps to the controller. That part seems to be ok - e.g. I can get the stepper moving from the pulses generated by the arduino. But now for the confusing part - the motor always turns as if there is a value on the direction pin regardless of whether the pin is set high or low. As far as I can figure, the direction pin on the stepper controller seems to see any connection as a high signal and results in the stepper receiving a signal on the pin regardless of whether or not the pin is set high on the arduino. Just as an experiment I disconnected the direction pin while the stepper was running and it immediately changed direction. Plugging the lead into anything including just straight to ground results in the stepper changing direction.

Ideas?

2

hi

try checking the physical connection & electrical continuity between the Arduino and stepper. Sometimes a bad solder joint makes a connection look OK when it isn't. Also make sure you have a ground connected between the Arduino and the stepper.

You could also try putting a voltmeter on the Arduino pin in question, to see if it is actually going high/low according to the code.

D