Serial stepper motor controller

Abstract

The theory of stepper motor control has evolved since the late 18th century. Simply, Stepper motor control is defined as accurately controlling the movement of an object based on speed, distance, load, inertia or a combination of all these factors. Due to high system complexity and difficult software language implementation, the traditional programmable logic controller based stepper motor control systems have gradually been replaced by PC based control systems. In this project, the control of a stepper motor system is accomplished from a PC and an intuitive and easy to use graphical user interface is designed using Microsoft Visual Basic. The purpose of the GUI design is to simplify the control process, save users time from learning a control language and to provide a visualized window for control under the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. The functions include basic, forward reverse control, step and speed of stepper motor status. The proposed system consists of an electronic circuit which interfaces with a computer through the parallel port for timely controlling the stepper motor centrally using the database software. As a whole, the stepper motor system, together with its graphical user interface, provides a high-accuracy, easily controlled platform with comparatively low system complexity that is suitable for future applications such as data collection, robot navigation or camera controlling.