Backstory: I'm retrofitting an old 35mm motion picture scanner (mid-late 1990s) with an LED light source and modern 4k Cameralink-based sensor. I've done a fair bit of programming, but this is my first project involving hardware/software interaction. The basic plan is to use one or more arduino boards in between my software (via serial control) and the scanner, to drive the film transport motors as well as the motors for focus, camera positioning, etc. All of the mechanical elements are already there, I basically just have to get it hooked up and moving in the right way. There are a ton of stepper motors in the unit. Most are controlled by a proprietary backplane/Vexta driver card setup. Two of them are controlled by these standalone drivers: Serious stepper motor drivers | They may or may not be usefu… | Flickr
I want to re-use these two drivers to control the two sprocket drive stepper motors in the scanner. My goal for this weekend is to get one of these working under Arduino control, through the Vexta driver, moving forward and backward the correct distance for one frame of film. I've barely scratched the surface with Arduino, but I think I get the gist of it, having done the first 5 or 6 tutorials in the starter kit.
My questions are:
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I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to connect it to the arduino. I'm guessing that "CW" and "CCW" are Clockwise and Counterclockwise, but what pins do I need to connect to from the Arduino?
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Once connected, what exactly do I need to write to those pins?
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Is it possible to use one driver to control two motors simultaneously to do the same thing? I'm thinking the two sprocket drive motors should move in tandem, so if I can just put both on the same driver, will that just work automatically?
Ideas? Has anyone used one of these drivers with an arduino?
Thanks!