Stepper motor control with DRV 8825 driver based on square wave signal from AVR microcontroller timer

Abstract

In this research, an electronic circuit control system had been designed for controlling stepper motors. The system consists of stepper motor driver IC and microcontroller. The stepper motor driver IC was used to implement those control mechanisms. The Microcontroller Unit (MCU) is used to generate the square wave needed for input to motor driver. The circuit was applied on two types of stepper motors, namely permanent magnet stepper motor and hybrid stepper motor. Several modes of controls are conducted here, which are full-stepping, half-stepping, and micro stepping. Some useful motor movements which are often used in many applications were tried here. Observations were made on the speed of the motor for various input waveform frequencies, on the stepper motor sound for a range of micro stepping level, and on the acceleration profile. Some significant result was obtained in that by using higher micro stepping levels, a more smoother stepper motor movement can be achieved. Another important result is that by applying an acceleration profile in the microcontroller program, we may target a speed which is well above the rated start-on speed of the stepper motor.