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rainbow cable to Arduino question

Posted by jsteill 
rainbow cable to Arduino question
October 11, 2010 11:03PM
I have a stepper driver v2.3 from makerbot, and I would like to use an Arduino for control. How do I know which wires from the rainbow cable should be attached to pins 8,9,10, and 11? I believe I have the brown wire in the proper index position on the IDC. Are the other wires used for communication from the optical stops? Which ones? My end goal is to use the motor to move a test sample up into a furnace, dwell for a set time period, and then move the sample down into a cold region, dwell for a set time period, and repeat...

Thank you,
lost in thermal fatigue cycling
Re: rainbow cable to Arduino question
October 12, 2010 04:46AM
Not sure which cable you mean with the "rainbow cable", but assuming you mean the cable between the controller (Arduino, Sanguino, whatever) and the stepper motor driver, only two pins are essential: STEP (for making the motor doing steps) and DIR (for changing it's direction). Oh, and not to forget a common grounding (GND). The other pins are not essential and made for things like Opto Endstops and disabling the holding current while the motor is not in use.

When experimenting, start with GND and STEP, as this single pair is already sufficient for your motor to become alive. Always in the same direction, of course, why you probably want the DIR pin right after this first success.


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