Stepper Motor Controller Possible?

[gladiator11]

Would I be able to rotate a stepper motor 360 degrees and stop with the click of a button and it would only spin when a wireless signal from a transmitter told it to (like a wireless button pushed in; separate from the driver board). Is this a possibility? Powered remotely. Thank you.

 

[jimlovell777]

To directly answer your question, yes it's possible. What part of the project has you stuck so we could help you more?

 

[gladiator11]

Ok basically, I don't know where to start. I need a circuit board design to operate such a sequence. Thank you for your response. By the way, I live 5 minutes from St.louis, MO =]. Nice to meet you.

 

[jimlovell777]

Nice meeting you as well. Are you familiar with coding or microcontrollers? Do you have an idea of what you want to use for a transmitter and receiver pair?

 

[gladiator11]

I'm afraid my knowledge of electronics is very slim.

 

[Mr RB]

You might be better off with a simple DC motor, and put a cam on it, and a switch on the cam. It will turn 360' then stop. Heaps of old machines used a system like this.

Then you just need a 555 timer to start it up each time.

 

[gladiator11]

Hmm... much rather use a stepper motor. Can't afford the switch/catch latch vibrations.

 

[Mr RB]

Don't want vibrations????

I'm guessing you don't use stepper motors much then??

 

[gladiator11]

Well, how could I control a DC motor to turn and stop 360 degrees around? - Without using a lever switch...

 

[Mr RB]

Use an optical switch like an IR photo interruptor.

 

[gladiator11]

Great point, was thinking of that but wasn't sure how precisely it would stop. I really need it to stop nearly exact to 0-360 degrees. Also, I'm assuming DC motors more efficient than stepper motors?

 

[Grossel]

Also, I'm assuming DC motors more efficient than stepper motors?

For DC motor at low speed, a big part of the input power goes to heat, just a little goes to movement.

 

[Froskoy]

You'd need to count the number of steps of the stepper motor and then make the stop pin high, so turning 360deg and then stopping isn't as easy as it first sounds.

 

[Grossel]

Another factor you need to take in account when operating steppers: In general, you don't know the position of the stepper. So you must make a procedure that run the stepper "backwards" until some button is touched. That's the first thing to do.

 

[gladiator11]

Ok, can I just use a brushless dc motor + controller and an IR photo sensor to stop it at 360 degrees? or will that not be accurate??

 

[Grossel]

Ok, can I just use a brushless dc motor + controller and an IR photo sensor to stop it at 360 degrees? or will that not be accurate??

That depends on how fast the motor will go. Will it stop at the right spot if speed is too high?

It will always be possible to make the rotation approx 360 deg. But how accurate do you need it to be? Eg. a tehth of a degree?

 

[gladiator11]

The speed will be constant, It should be accurate to maybe 1 or 2 degrees or so...

 

[Grossel]

The speed will be constant

How fast?

It should be accurate to maybe 1 or 2 degrees or so...

Then if the speed isn't too high, this should be feasible.

 

[Mr RB]

Use a standard DC gearmotor. A nice slow one like a windscreen wiper motor. In fact the early windscreen wiper motors ALREADY HAD a bult in rotation detect switch so they would stop at the right spot.