PICstep, motor won't turn

[kreutz]

Originally Posted by kreutz Hello again; ........ I will be really busy till December 10th. I will check to see if I have one of those PICs around, and program it. Please, send me your mail address (PM me) in order to send it to you, no money needed. That way you can test your board with a good one and see if that is the problem. Regards, Kreutz.

Hello;

I just received the 4 PICs16F628A-I/P I ordered last week. I will take a break during the week to program them and send them to you.

Regards,

Kreutz.

[Mister H]

Oh super!!

Thanks a million,

If you PM me your adress, i'll sent you a Dutch christmas card,
I bet you won't get those often

GReetings Hendrik

[kreutz]

Originally Posted by Mister H Oh super!! Thanks a million, If you PM me your adress, i'll sent you a Dutch christmas card, I bet you won't get those often GReetings Hendrik

We will really appreciate it!!

Regards,

Kreutz and Family.

[Mister H]

Hello Kreutz,

I was wandering around the forum when I encountered another topic from you,
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44438

Is this a controller for a stepper?
Since I don't speak spanish I can't make anything of it.

It looks loke you are designing it. What is the difference between this controller and the PICstep (except for the interface)

[kreutz]

Originally Posted by Mister H Hello Kreutz, I was wandering around the forum when I encountered another topic from you, http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44438 Is this a controller for a stepper? Since I don't speak spanish I can't make anything of it. It looks loke you are designing it. What is the difference between this controller and the PICstep (except for the interface)

Hello;

Here is another thread in English: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33756

Its subject is a new bipolar micro-stepper drive (for 4 axes) I am designing (about to do the final tests during this month), it is aimed for 5 Amp peak 48 Volt maximum per phase and includes the "Break Out Box" or PC interface.

The main differences are: the use of a different micro-controller (Atmel AVR), and the use of a CPLD to control phase current (chopping) and Slow-Fast Decay on the H- bridge. The PICStep is simpler because this part of the functionality is hidden inside the power chips employed on that design

There is another thread you might want to look at, it is the design of a unipolar micro-stepper drive for 80 volts - 8 amps http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25361


Regards,

Kreutz.

[kreutz]

While programing the PICs, using MPLAB ICD2 and the Universal Programming Module, I found a couple of errors. After programmed, they did not verify correctly. Since I have misplaced the 9 volt power supply normally used for the ICD2 I had improvised another one by using one wall adapter labeled 9 Volts DC 400 mA.

The problems were related to ripple on the adapter's power supply, absolutely no capacitor inside. After adding an external capacitor I've got 13 Volts DC and had to add a 7809 regulator in order to comply with the ICD2 input power requirement.

Reprogramming the 4 chips went without problems this time. I used the Picstep_v2_0.hex with current reduction, did not use the other one because of several complains about bad behavior of that hex file. Tried the Asm file but received too many errors from MPLAB IDE 8.0.

Since I don't have a PICstep I can't verify the correct functioning of the firmware on those chips. The package is leaving tomorrow (marked as "Samples"). Enjoy!!

Regards,

Kreutz.

[Mister H]

Hello Kreutz,

So it did gave a couple of problems with the programming?
I hope that this is the problem with the PICstep since I don't know what to try else.
I'm looking forward to trying it .
If this doesn't work, I might have to think about buying a set or trying to build another driver.

Greetings
Hendrik

PS: I still need an adres to sent the card to

[kreutz]

I hope you already received the chips. Happy New Year!!!

[Mister H]

Hello Kreutz,

I have received the chips a couple of days ago. Thanks a lot!
Yesterday was the first day I had some time to play around with it and it all looks promising!!

I installed 1 of them on a PICstep and I can joggle the motor left and right as it should be. So far it looks ok.

One thing i'm not sure about is the force of the motor as well as the low-speed steps.
When i joggle the motor with high speed then i can't stop the motor by hand(it is to strong), but when it stands stil and i put my finger just against the shaft (not even holding it) and i joggle, the it can't start and keeps on the same place jumping i step forward and the backward again.
I think this has to do something with the software settings.

Do you know what setting I should use for mach 3 for the following setup:

-I'm planning to cut wood with it.
-the spindle is 14x4 trapezium (4mm per revolution of the spindle)
-i'm planning to use 1/8th step. ( so probably 1/4x8x200=400steps per revolution?)
-max speed???
-max acceleration??

But for now i'm already happy that I can joggle around with it, so probably the picsteps will work (although 1 picsteps acts a little different then the others)

I hope that you have received my christmas card as well

many thanks again, I couldn't do it without your advice
Greetings Hendrik

[kreutz]

Hello;

I am glad it is working now. The Christmas card has not arrived yet, will be here early for next year's Christmas

I hope another PICstep user will step in and help with the Mach3 setup. Maximum speed and acceleration depend on the motors, power supply voltage and the load, so finding the optimal values will be by trial and error, unless somebody wants to post starting values.

Happy New Year!!

Kreutz.

[kreutz]

The Christmas Card arrived Today!!!, Thank you.

Regards,

Kreutz.

[abasir]

Originally Posted by Mister H One thing i'm not sure about is the force of the motor as well as the low-speed steps. When i joggle the motor with high speed then i can't stop the motor by hand(it is to strong), but when it stands stil and i put my finger just against the shaft (not even holding it) and i joggle, the it can't start and keeps on the same place jumping i step forward and the backward again. I think this has to do something with the software settings.

Probably the stepper motor is not wired correctly. Take one pair of the stepper motor wires and flip the connections, i.e., if original wiring is 1-2-3-4 then wire it as 1-2-4-3 or 2-1-3-4

Originally Posted by Mister H Do you know what setting I should use for mach 3 for the following setup: -I'm planning to cut wood with it. -the spindle is 14x4 trapezium (4mm per revolution of the spindle) -i'm planning to use 1/8th step. ( so probably 1/4x8x200=400steps per revolution?) -max speed??? -max acceleration??

The steps per units is correct.
For maximum speed, keep increasing the max speed number until the stepper stalls. Then reduce the number by about 30% for normal operation.
Do the same for the acceleration.

Hope this helps... I'm using PICStep on my Sherline. Photos here