Stepper motor with (more) advanced controls

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hi everyone, I'm very new to the Arduino and coding community.
I have been looking around for the last week trying to find a way to make a motor for a camera slider.
I have seen so many different types out there , but have not been able to find the type that I would like to build, I'm happy doing research, I even bought an Arduino book 'for dummies' in the hopes I can figure it out for myself.

What I want to do is have a keypad from 0-9 with arrows to control spin direction. The numbers will control the time the camera takes to move along the whole track, with the direction arrows being the start buttons for each direction and the stop buttons if needed, however the camera will stop as it reaches the end of the track.

Everything I have found online uses a sequence of switches to control the time it takes to move along the track. I understand how to do that now, but was wondering if anyone knew how much harder it would be to use the keypad method I've outlined above, and also what it would entail extra, if I were to use the keypad (eg. whether it be extra controllers or a different type of motor driver...) or if it is just changes to the code to account for the numbers pressed rather than switches turned on.

Any help would be really appreciated and thanks in advance to everyone who replies.

2

It should not be especially difficult to use a keypad if you take the learning in small steps.

Get a keypad and Arduino and write a short program to take data from the keypad in the style you will need for your motor control and show the data on the Arduino Serial Monitor.

In the organization of your final program the business of reading the keypad should be entirely separate from the business of moving the motors. The only common factor will be the variable(s) that hold the data collected from the keypad. have a look at Planning and Implementing a Program

...R

3

Thanks Robin,
So am I right in thinking it may require two Arduinos to function properly,one of which will be used to control the others motor driver while that handles the changes in steps?

4

Moerator:
So am I right in thinking it may require two Arduinos to function properly

NO. Not at all. One Arduino should be well able to do what you want.

All I was suggesting is that you develop the program in parts and get each part working before trying to build the complete program.

Using 2 Arduinos introduces all the complications of getting them to communicate with each other.

...R