Hello all. I am somewhat of a beginner when it comes to the arduous but have coded my fair share of small projects. This next one I am a little in the dark and am hoping that there is someone out there that would appreciate helping a beginner such as myself. I would like to build a sprocket on a stepper motor that stops ever 30 degrees for a variable amount of time between .1s and 10s that I controlled by a potentiometer. I assume this is possible, but first off is this possible? Secondly, is there any special supplies I’d need besides the basics listed above? Thanks in advance for any help!
Try posting your preliminary schematic, not a frizzy picture showing all connections. Be sure to post links to technical information on the hardware devices. You might tell us what the project does and what the loads are. Is this a direct drive?
If you have a 200 step per revolution motor, it won't go to 30°, 16 steps is 28.8°, 17 steps is 30.6°. You can get closer with "microstepping" (1/2, 1/4, 1/8 step and so on), but not exactly 30. Post links to your motor and driver.
Stepper Motor - 68 oz.in (400 steps/rev) - ROB-10846 - SparkFun Electronics I haven’t bought one yet but I was looking into this one. It is 400 steps per rev. I would probably do 10 stops per revolution (instead of 12) so that would be pausing every 40 steps. I was unaware of the need for a driver. Will you need a driver even if it is just 3V vs a 6-12V?
The Arduino's output pins can only handle about 20mA continuously, not enough to drive a motor, so, yes you do need a driver to suit your motor. There are different types of steppers so we can't say which driver without knowing which motor.
Ok, you should be good to go, just do some tutorial reading before hand and remember, never connect or disconnect wires with power ON, that's the best way to kill a stepper driver.
PS: don't forget to set the driver's current limiter before running (1.7 Amps).
I would at least recommend a driver with an DRV8825 chip.
You don't need that much ( if you have only one Stepper ).
Your stepper needs 1.7A+3V+2 = 10.1W in standstill. A power source with 12v/2A ( =24W ) should be sufficent. Don't forget the bulk capacitor at the power input of the driver.