Very first project, Please Help :)

[jbramuk]

Hey Guys,

This is my first personal project, I have no background in electronics whatsoever. I really appreciate every feedback and help I get from here. Thankyou for taking the time and effort to reply to this post.

So on to my project, I want to motorize my slider (please see the attached picture of the slider). I want to motorize this in two ways, One for a timelapse photography and the other is for a smooth slide motion.

I have decided to use the a 12V DC stepper motor (please see the picture for the motor and the pin type) and a 12V DC RPM Geared motor (See pictures). My questions is how do i control the stepper motor using a potentiometer or any other way..so that it moves a certain distance and stops and moves again to a certain distance.

And for the video, I am planning to buy **broken link removed**. pretty sure this will do the job.

Please do ask if you want more information about this project.

Thankyou All
-Jay

 

[jbramuk]

Hey Guys,

This is my first personal project, I have no background in electronics whatsoever. I really appreciate every feedback and help I get from here. Thankyou for taking the time and effort to reply to this post.

So on to my project, I want to motorize my slider (please see the attached picture of the slider). I want to motorize this in two ways, One for a timelapse photography and the other is for a smooth slide motion.

I have decided to use the a 12V DC stepper motor (please see the picture for the motor and the pin type) and a 12V DC RPM Geared motor (See pictures). My questions is how do i control the stepper motor using a potentiometer or any other way..so that it moves a certain distance and stops and moves again to a certain distance.

And for the video, I am planning to buy **broken link removed**. pretty sure this will do the job.

Please do ask if you want more information about this project.

Thankyou All
-Jay

 

[Misterbenn]

You haven't attached pictures

 

[jbramuk]

I did for some reason its not showing up in the main post. Im gonna try again.

 

[SABorn]

Do you know if the stepper is a uniploar or bipolar stepper, it looks like a unipolar stepper to me but not 100% sure.

How much weight or force will need to be on the slide.
How slow (mm per minute) will this need to travel.
Also steppers can be a bit not so smooth at slow stepping rates, this al depends on the setup.

It would pay for you to discribe what you want to do better, and how all this is to work.

Pete.

 

[jbramuk]

1. The Stepper is a Bi-polar.

2. The weight of the slide with the tripod and camer does not exceed 8lbs.

3. I would like to control the speed of the "Stop-Go-Stop" motion via a potentiometer. in mm/min i would say about 4-6mm

4. Smoothness would not matter as this is used for timelapse photography, the camera takes a pictures evertime the motor stops. For the continues motions im using the 12V DC Motor.

I hope that answers your questions, do let me know if you need to know more.

**broken link removed** - This is what I'm tryin to achieve. I'am a noob when it comes to electronics.

Do you know if the stepper is a uniploar or bipolar stepper, it looks like a unipolar stepper to me but not 100% sure.

How much weight or force will need to be on the slide.
How slow (mm per minute) will this need to travel.
Also steppers can be a bit not so smooth at slow stepping rates, this al depends on the setup.

It would pay for you to discribe what you want to do better, and how all this is to work.

Pete.

 

[alec_t]

I don't see why you need two motors. One (either type) should be capable of both types of motion and would be much simpler.

Alec

 

[SABorn]

I built a small cnc router which uses a similar drive method to what you need.

The method i used was to use a length of all thread or continues threaded rod, with the stepper mounted on the end of the threaded rod.

This gives a large reduction of steps to mm travelled.

What you do is fix a nut to the bottom of the carriage that follows the thread up and back.

The other option is to use a cogged belt as per the video, but these are hard to find and can be costly.

As for the drive method i would use a picaxe and a LM-293D motor driver chip, as this will allow for easy control, others might have a better solution.

Are you sure it is a bi-polar stepper as the wiring would imply uni polar, then again i can be wrong??

 

[Misterbenn]

What you need as SBourn said is a 'ball screw' actuator. You can buy these.

I have all the calcuations from an old uni project if your interested.