How to control stepper motor nema 17 with nrf52 DK

[ChernoBilly69]

Hi guys,

I was trying to find some information about how to control a stepper motor with the DK, but I don't really find something that I can understand. I started a month ago and there are still a lot of things that I don't know. I wonder if anyone could help me to start with this.

What I want to do is to control a nema 17 with the nrf52 DK somehow, velocity, acceleration, direction, etc. I also have a A4988 driver form other project with arduino, but I don't know if using the driver is goning to get the things easier. I don't really know how to start and what I need to know.

I hope you can help me

[JONATHAN LL]

Hi,


So i am not sure we have a example for this exact setup you have but it should be doable, you can also write your own driver to use the nema 17 with the nrf52. 

I do see that there are some questions here on Devzone that might help:
Decrease voltage but keeping current - Nordic Q&A - Nordic DevZone - Nordic DevZone (nordicsemi.com) 

nRF52 PWM / Stepper Motor - Nordic Q&A - Nordic DevZone - Nordic DevZone (nordicsemi.com) 


Then there is the PWM documentation in Zephyr. 
PWM — Zephyr Project Documentation 
sdk-zephyr/drivers/pwm at main · nrfconnect/sdk-zephyr · GitHub 

And for the nRF5 SDK we have the PWM lib and a driver example
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/sdk_nrf5_v17.1.0/lib_pwm.html?cp=8_1_3_37 
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/sdk_nrf5_v17.1.0/pwm_hw_example.html?cp=8_1_4_6_24 


This issue might be more of a Zephyr issue if you are looking for a software driver for the nema 17, you could try to ask in the Zephyr Discord for help also, but try to reach out to more communities for help to get advice. Might be that someone has done this before and can provide more details. 

What I would recommend that you do is look in to the two software development kits we have. The nRF Connect SDK and the nRF5 SDK, find out what you want to use for you project, both is able to "solve" the issue you have but amount of work might be different. Look in to how to control a stepper motor with a microcontroller. If you have used a motor driver with the Arduino then it is not that different, but there might not be as much community examples to take from when using other platforms. 

I did find this: Controlling NEMA 17 Stepper Motor with Arduino and A4988 Stepper Driver Module (circuitdigest.com) and maybe this is something similar to what you have done before, but seems like a ok reference if you want to use the A4988 to control the stepper motor. I also see that the Adafruit site is selling the motor and a Arduino shield. The nRF52DK are Arduino shield compatible so you should be able to use that with the DK and the motor if that is something that seems like a better options. 
Maybe also check in the Adafruit community and ask if anyone have any good tips and tricks. 

From the site here : Pololu - Stepper Motor: Bipolar, 200 Steps/Rev, 42×38mm, 2.8V, 1.7 A/Phase it looks like they do recommend to use a motor driver. The A4988 is listed there so think I would go for the motor driver. 


Feel free to ask more questions or generate new tickets here on Devzone and we will try to help as best we can. 


Regards,
Jonathan