Arduino Stepper Motor Controller

Stepper motors are also known as step motor or stepping motors. That’s because they divide one full shaft rotation in to a number of equal steps. The stepper motor is known for its property of converting a train of input pulses (typically square waves) into a precisely defined increment in the shaft’s rotational position. Each pulse rotates the shaft through a fixed angle.
We here develop an arduino based stepper motor controller that allows user to control the stepper in 3 different modes:

• Full Rotation Mode
• Quarter Rotation Mode
• Encoder Mode/ Manual Mode

The system makes use of Arduino uno controller along with an LCD Display, NEMA Stepper motor, optical encoder, stepper driver, switches and buttons along with basic electronics component and PCB to develop this system.

Full Rotation Mode:
Switching the system in full rotation mode allows user to control the motor direction without stopping. The motor can now be rotated continuously in clockwise as well as anti clockwise direction using a simple switch button.

Quarter Rotation Mode:
In this mode the stepper motor movement is restricted to quarter of a rotation. When switched in this mode the user can press a red button. On a button press the stepper motor rotates exactly one quarter rotation and stops. Pressing the same button again the motor rotates another quarter starting from the last point at which t stopped.

Encoder Mode/Manual Mode:
This mode gives a full manual control of the stepper motor to the user. When switched in this mode the user can control motor movement using an optical encoder. The optical encoder is fitted with a knob to help rotate it. When user rotates the knob the rotation steps are transmitted to the controller and the arduino displays no of steps on an LCD display. Also it uses a stepper driver to rotate the motor step by step respectively as per manual rotation of optical encoder.

Thus we develop a arduino based stepper motor controller system that allows the user to control a stepper motor motion in 3 different modes.

• Components
• Arduino Uno
• Optical Encoder
• Stepper Motor
• Stepper Motor Driver
• LCD Display
• Buzzer
• Transformer
• Regulator Circuitry
• Switches
• LED’s
• PCB Board
• Resistors
• Capacitors
• Transistors
• Cables and Connectors

Block Diagram