Motor Shield code question

[XtremeIN]

Hello,
I have what I think is a simple question. I have my motor shield assembled and turning my stepper motors nicely, but in the example code the following is used:

AF_Stepper motor(48, 2);

I know the 2 calles the second motoer or M3 and M4 on the board. What is the 48?

Thank you,
Micheal

[adafruit_support_bill]

The 48 tells the stepper library how many steps there are in a full rotation for your motor.

This number is used in speed calculations. When you specify a certain number of RPM, the library will calculate the number of steps per second it needs to generate to achieve that speed.

If you are using something other than a 48-step (1.25 degree/step) motor, you should change that number to match.

[XtremeIN]

Thank you very much for you quick response. I now remember reading that somewhere.....duh!

I know have another question.
I understand that I can not turn on two different stepper motors at the same time. To simulate the look and feel of both I must interlace them stepping.

for (int i=0; i<200; i++)
{
motor1.step(1, FORWARD, SINGLE);
motor2.step(1, FORWARD, SINGLE);
}

What I am trying to do is home a X and Y axis table. At power up of the table it will not know where the table is. I would like to have both the X and Y stepper motors jog until a switch is made. I can make it work by doing it one at a time, but I would relly like for both to move toghter. Right now I have this, which does one at a time:

while (digitalRead (XhomeSwitch) == HIGH)
{
XaxisMotor.step (1, FORWARD, DOUBLE);
}

while (digitalRead (YhomeSwitch) == HIGH)
{
YaxisMotor.step (1, FORWARD, DOUBLE);
}

I m just not sure which stlye loop to use or how to nest them.
Thank you,
Micheal

[adafruit_support_bill]

Something like this should do it:

Code: Select all

while ((digitalRead (XhomeSwitch) == HIGH) || (digitalRead (YhomeSwitch) == HIGH))
{
   if(digitalRead (XhomeSwitch) == HIGH)
   {
      XaxisMotor.step (1, FORWARD, DOUBLE);
   }

   if(digitalRead (YhomeSwitch) == HIGH)
   {
      YaxisMotor.step (1, FORWARD, DOUBLE);
   }
}


You should also consider the AF_Motor/AccelStepper option. See the "MultiStepper" example in the AF_Motor library.