September 10th, 2008 3in1 Stepper Motor Controller
This article was submited by morgoth and is part of the PCB giveaway program, so for submitting he’s work morgoth will receive a free PCB. Also in the future we’ll see more of he’s projects.
Of-course there are other projects based on this idea around the web, but what makes this one special, it’s he’s features. There are 3 stepper motors controlled by a single ATmega8 that runs at 8 MHz, and a motor driver for each motor. The motors and their drivers were recovered from an old printer.
Although the motors are controlled by the same microcontroller each one can move independent. The board can receive commands to drive the motors trough serial interface from a computer. There is also a PC software that enables you to send commands from a nice graphical interface.
As you can see this is a very practical application, for example it can be easily developed into a CNC machine. I personally like morgoth’s coding skils and i think he has some more great projects to show.
And in the ending here is a movie with the motors in action.
Here are some downloads:
September 15th, 2008 at 11:32 am
[...] Read more about making a 3-in-1 Stepper Motor Controller [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
How well does this controller handle heat with constant use of a stepper?
September 15th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The controller doesn’t have to handle heat at all, because the motors are controlled trough drivers circuits. So you can adapt it for your needs by using adequate drivers.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I’m having trouble opening the .MAX file… it there just a simple image or text/ascii drawing of the circuit somewhere?
September 16th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Mike, I’ve added a link with the picture at the end of the article.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Thanks for the board diagram. Looks like a neat alternative for a project. My solder-fu is not strong enough for surface mount work, is there an actual circuit diagram I can adapt to non-surface mount components? (ie what pin connect to what?)
September 16th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Mike the circuit diagram needs to be redone. I will get it up tomorrow.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Fantastic! Thanks!
September 18th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Mike, I’ve added the schematic.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Brilliant! Thank you kindly!
November 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I have a question. I have two stepper motors. They are unipolar. I’m making a board. I need to help with design of board. I want to control it with microcontroller Atmega8. And to communicate with PC via the serial port.
Should I use ULN2803 ?
Thank you.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hello!
It would be very useful if you post a list with all the components used in this project. Some of us use Eagle which can’t open the .max file.
Thank you.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
sloso, you can’t use ULN2803 because the drivers need to be PNP or non-inverting but I’m not saying this is not possible at all, it’s just you’re gonna need to add more components to use ULN2803. so before the ULN you’re gonna need transistors to invert the current outputed by the microcontroller, in standby the mcu has logic 1 on all outputs and when it is runing it outpus logic 0 on the selected output. If the middle windings are connected to Vcc then the drivers needs to non-inverting. If the middle windings are connected to GND then you must use PNP transistors. But you can’t use motors with voltage greater than 5V in the case of PNP transistors as for the other case you can even use motors with 1KV voltage if you have the coresponding transistors
sloso, i talked to morgoth the author and he said he’ll upload a new ROM for you to use with ULN2803
florinx the parts list is coming in a couple of minutes
November 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
florinx, the drivers used in the project were LB1836
November 12th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
hi florin,what’s my next steps then?I’ve already got 2 unipolar stepper motors and i have to make my own pcb..What do you suggest?I want to control those motors with atmega8 and communicate with Pc through serial port.
Thank you.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
sloso, I’ve uploaded the new schematic, source code and application. You’ll find download links at the end of the article.
and don’t forget to mention the source of the files if you’re making a public project