Firstly apologies but I am completely new to the Arduino having never used one before.
A work colleague put together a UNO with L293D Shield for me and preloaded 'Focuserv172_L293D.ino' on it. I'm trying to control a Feathertouch HSM20 which uses a Bipolar stepper but I don't have any data on it - I had to work out the type of stepper by reverse engineering with a multimeter as the supplier refuses to give me any information. I can control it with both the Windows controller and via ASCOM.
When I first got it working I had to set the Max Position to 50,000 to get the full (50mm) of travel out of my focuser but I noticed that sometimes when I powered up this only gave half travel and I needed to set the Max Position to 100,000 but the limit is 65,000 so I couldn't get the full travel. Subsequent testing shows that this seems to be related to the StepMode. Full gives full travel at 50,000 and half gives half the distance which makes sense but I'm not clear why it changes each time I power it up - usually half travel but sometimes full travel. Do I just need to set Full each time I power up before using it?
The other issue with this is that with the StepMode set to half the movement is very smooth but with full set it can be quite 'jerky' at times - is there a way to change the Max Position to allow 100,000 to be set and use half for StepMode or some other parameter that can be changed to resolve this issue?
I bought a new UNO to play with to learn how to program it and have loaded the file he gave me but it gives an error 'exit status 1, Error compiling ...'. I also downloaded the latest 'Focuserv272_L293D.ino' but that just gives the same compiling error. I've watched a tutorial on the project and it says there should be 3 files and that you also need a fourth but the download only contains one file - is this correct or am I missing something?
Once again, sorry for the complete noob questions, thanks
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If it's any help, the HSM20 is geared and drives the 10:1 gear directly (I know you don't recommend this but it's their design so I guess they are ok with it). With StepMode set to half it takes 3620 steps to complete one full revolution of the 10:1 knob.
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Hi Barry
1. Max Position
You should be able to set values up to 2 million as max steps, so 100,000 should not be a problem.
You can only set this using the Windows Application.
But you said you had v172 loaded. This is for myFocuserPro, not myFocuserPro2 as listed here. Under myfocuserPro you are limited to 65000 or less. Only myFocuserPro2 (this site) allows maxteps > 65000 but you have to use the v27x firmware instead. So that means you have to reprogram the controller.
The video's show that you must download the firmware as a zip file, then extract it. This contains a file called "Libraries - Important - Read this.txt" file. You have to follow those instructions to copy the library files to the correct location first otherwise you will get errors trying to compile the firmware.
On the question of half steps - with a geared motor I would use full steps.
On the question about sometimes it is half steps and other times its full steps, on page 60 of the pdf it mentions what happens when the application connects to the control - which states
Get reverse direction
Get step mode
Send Displaystate Celsius or Fahrenheit
so you can see that it gets the saved step mode from the controller when connecting. What this means is if you set the application to half-steps and then connect to the controller - it will be set to whatever the controller is set to. Now if during a session you had set the controller to full steps, then experminted using half steps, then disconnected, the controller saves whatever the step mode was - which was lastly half steps, so that is what will be returned to the application next time a connection is made. Remember that any change is saved in the controller 10s after a change is made - if I change from full steps to half steps then reboot the controller 5s later then the controller has not had enough time to save this change, so on power up will be full steps
On the question of jerky movements - v2 should be different for you. I see you are using the L293D shield so you have no way to control the current in the stepper. But I can provide information about what changes you can make to the v2xx firmware to make it smoother at full steps if that is an issue.
What I suggest is get the focuser reporgrammed with v273 (or 272), get the maxsteps set, and try it with full steps and see how it goes. If it still is jerky then we can look at it. I also suggest you check Extra Settings for the focuser (before you click Connect) and ensure that "Update Position when moving" is disabled. Pg 54 of the PDF
Any questions please ask, we are here to help
Regards
Robert
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Thanks for your very comprehensive answer Robert, I now have the second UNO programmed with V272 and have V2.3.9.9 of the Windows APP running. All compiled and uploaded with no problem. I had a bit of a problem with the driver chip getting hot and the motor apparently not moving but changing the StepsPerRevolution to 1810 fixed that. I now have a Max of 50,000 and full step size with smooth operation.
Last edit: Barry Lunn 2018-07-06
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Firstly apologies but I am completely new to the Arduino having never used one before.
A work colleague put together a UNO with L293D Shield for me and preloaded 'Focuserv172_L293D.ino' on it. I'm trying to control a Feathertouch HSM20 which uses a Bipolar stepper but I don't have any data on it - I had to work out the type of stepper by reverse engineering with a multimeter as the supplier refuses to give me any information. I can control it with both the Windows controller and via ASCOM.
When I first got it working I had to set the Max Position to 50,000 to get the full (50mm) of travel out of my focuser but I noticed that sometimes when I powered up this only gave half travel and I needed to set the Max Position to 100,000 but the limit is 65,000 so I couldn't get the full travel. Subsequent testing shows that this seems to be related to the StepMode. Full gives full travel at 50,000 and half gives half the distance which makes sense but I'm not clear why it changes each time I power it up - usually half travel but sometimes full travel. Do I just need to set Full each time I power up before using it?
The other issue with this is that with the StepMode set to half the movement is very smooth but with full set it can be quite 'jerky' at times - is there a way to change the Max Position to allow 100,000 to be set and use half for StepMode or some other parameter that can be changed to resolve this issue?
I bought a new UNO to play with to learn how to program it and have loaded the file he gave me but it gives an error 'exit status 1, Error compiling ...'. I also downloaded the latest 'Focuserv272_L293D.ino' but that just gives the same compiling error. I've watched a tutorial on the project and it says there should be 3 files and that you also need a fourth but the download only contains one file - is this correct or am I missing something?
Once again, sorry for the complete noob questions, thanks
If it's any help, the HSM20 is geared and drives the 10:1 gear directly (I know you don't recommend this but it's their design so I guess they are ok with it). With StepMode set to half it takes 3620 steps to complete one full revolution of the 10:1 knob.
Hi Barry
1. Max Position
You should be able to set values up to 2 million as max steps, so 100,000 should not be a problem.
You can only set this using the Windows Application.
But you said you had v172 loaded. This is for myFocuserPro, not myFocuserPro2 as listed here. Under myfocuserPro you are limited to 65000 or less. Only myFocuserPro2 (this site) allows maxteps > 65000 but you have to use the v27x firmware instead. So that means you have to reprogram the controller.
The video's show that you must download the firmware as a zip file, then extract it. This contains a file called "Libraries - Important - Read this.txt" file. You have to follow those instructions to copy the library files to the correct location first otherwise you will get errors trying to compile the firmware.
see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1BJGCBR-nU
Once you have copied the library files to the correct place, then you start the Arduino IDE, load the firmware file and reprogram the controller.
see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f4X6omc2NI
of course you have to use the v2 windows app and v3 ascom drivers with the v2 firmware
https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuserpro2diy/files/CODE%20WINDOWS/myFocuserPro2_2_3_9_9.zip/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuserpro2diy/files/CODE%20ASCOM/myFocuser2ASCOMSetup259.exe/download
On the question of half steps - with a geared motor I would use full steps.
On the question about sometimes it is half steps and other times its full steps, on page 60 of the pdf it mentions what happens when the application connects to the control - which states
Get reverse direction
Get step mode
Send Displaystate Celsius or Fahrenheit
so you can see that it gets the saved step mode from the controller when connecting. What this means is if you set the application to half-steps and then connect to the controller - it will be set to whatever the controller is set to. Now if during a session you had set the controller to full steps, then experminted using half steps, then disconnected, the controller saves whatever the step mode was - which was lastly half steps, so that is what will be returned to the application next time a connection is made. Remember that any change is saved in the controller 10s after a change is made - if I change from full steps to half steps then reboot the controller 5s later then the controller has not had enough time to save this change, so on power up will be full steps
On the question of jerky movements - v2 should be different for you. I see you are using the L293D shield so you have no way to control the current in the stepper. But I can provide information about what changes you can make to the v2xx firmware to make it smoother at full steps if that is an issue.
What I suggest is get the focuser reporgrammed with v273 (or 272), get the maxsteps set, and try it with full steps and see how it goes. If it still is jerky then we can look at it. I also suggest you check Extra Settings for the focuser (before you click Connect) and ensure that "Update Position when moving" is disabled. Pg 54 of the PDF
Any questions please ask, we are here to help
Regards
Robert
Thanks for your very comprehensive answer Robert, I now have the second UNO programmed with V272 and have V2.3.9.9 of the Windows APP running. All compiled and uploaded with no problem. I had a bit of a problem with the driver chip getting hot and the motor apparently not moving but changing the StepsPerRevolution to 1810 fixed that. I now have a Max of 50,000 and full step size with smooth operation.
Last edit: Barry Lunn 2018-07-06
Hi Barry
Glad to hear all is good, best wishes for your endeavours
:-)
Robert