Beaglebone: Driving Stepper Motors in Embedded Linux using the EasyDriver Board

This video examines how we can drive stepper motors using C++ within Embedded Linux using the open source hardware EasyDriver board. The video begins by describing stepper motors and the effects of micro-stepping. It then discusses the EasyDriver Board (V4.4) and all of the available inputs and outputs. The board uses the Allegro A3967 which allows for full, half-, quarter and one eight micro-stepping. The video then explains C++ code that uses the GPIOs on the Beagleboard to wrap the EasyDriver with a C++ class that is easy to use by creating an object of the class for each stepper motor that is connected.
The source code in this video is available through githhub:
git clone git://github.com/derekmolloy/beaglebone
Finally I show an example of my code running on the Mercury Motor (SM-42BYG011-25), which is a low cost stepper motor.
If you use this video in your research, please cite:
Molloy, D. [DerekMolloyDCU]. (2013, Feb, 12). Beaglebone: Driving Stepper Motors in Embedded Linux using the EasyDriver Board [Video file]. Retrieved from • Beaglebone: Driving St...
Please find more information on these videos at: www.derekmolloy...

[@DrewFustini]

Great tutorial! Really increased my understanding of stepper control.

[@DrewFustini]

***** hey, are ya coming to BeagleCon? :) ~Nov 8 Troy, MI

[@JustinTriplett]

Definitely. I'm really happy that the community will be able to gather and learn together. :D

[@brianschmalz1600]

Derek - what a fantastic video! You did a great overview of my EasyDriver board, with wonderful diagrams. Thank you. One comment - I believe that connecting the EasyDriver to a 5 wire stepper motor as you show in your diagrams would not allow proper chopping operation, as the two coils would interfere with each other and prevent the driver chip from properly chopping at the requested current. I may be wrong, as I've never had a 5 wire stepper to test this with, but this is my understanding. Keep up the great work!

[@DerekMolloyatDCU]

Thanks Brian -- it is a great board! I can't remember if I tried a 5 wire stepper motor. Thanks for the heads up!

[@carloalbertotorghele2488]

great as always! I'm glad you are back with new beaglebone videos.

[@AuctorisVideo]

Another great video Derek! Great to see you back.

[@Rendergears]

Very detailed and highly informative. Many thanks for uploading this video.

[@teuluPaul]

Very informative Derek, thanks very much!

[@amandafalke7670]

SO COOL! Derek, thank you so much

[@luisarellano09]

So great, continue please!!!

[@igor_tomljanovic]

This is what I needed :) THANKS ALOT!!!!

[@lorwin.delossantos]

Thanks.

[@TrungNguyen-ty9fc]

Hello! First of all, thank you very much for publishing the Beaglebone book. The book is very useful to my study. I just have a question regarding ADC part. In the code presented in page 349 (testADC.cpp), the frequency of detected wave is 0.1 Hz. What the maximum frequency is the code can detect? I am trying to detect the 25kHz wave. Do you have any suggestion to deal with this kind of wave. Thanks P.S: Sorry I can not write comments on your website so, I have to contact you in here.

[@s1mpl3k1d]

This is amazing! I'm also going to buy your book. I have a quick question though. I'm currently using Pololu DRV8825 stepper driver. How can I use it with BeagleBone? What do I need? It's made by Pololu so that means I dont have access to their code.

[@PrickConjo]

Did you try driving the easydriver without soldering SJ2? I'm planning to use an beaglebone for an large CNC. Only problem is that i need to pulse three large drivers, all 5v. Logic levels higher then 2.7v are considered high, i suppose 3.3v is enough to work on a 5v driver?

[@vacm1700]

cool!

[@rajnikanthL1005]

thank u for ur videos... can u plz upload videos on how to interface gprs,gsm,gps,zigbee modules to interface to the board... plzzzzzz

[@mohamadmahdijafari567]

Hi derek could you make video in which you explain how to read encoder?

[@havi0003]

I'm having a hard time getting the easy driver to work with new kernel? Any thoughts? I watched your other gpio video on device tree but couldn't get it to work still

[@ravenmooore]

This will work with Raspberry PI ? In Raspbian OS?

[@pfar94-j3u]

How can i write the same driver in C?

[@wlad_zh]

why you need C ?

[@pfar94-j3u]

Владислав Жолнерович because c is good for low level programming