stepper motor control +parallel port

[exavier45]

well i need a finite pulse train to send to the sepper motor driver to step the stepper motor a certain number of steps.
This is not possible with Labview out port.vi so, I must now use a microcontroller to generate this pulse train that i need.
my client still wnats to be able to say how many step in labView and then generate the signals form chip. 

so how do i send the number of steps to the chip and let the chip decide how many pulses to send.

I have a USB-6008 to use as a digital out.  Is there a way that i could get the PIC microcontroller to read some 1's and zeros from this pin then
use that to generate the pulses.

[Dennis_Knutson]

If you just want to send out a series of ones and zeros and don't care about the timing, the parallel port would probably work just as well as the 6008. Since you don't mention what the pic is and what is it's I/O, it's impossible to tell you how it can be used. If it's got multiple inputs, then a whole 8 bits at once could be sent with the parallel port for 256 discrete. The 6008 has 12 digital pins for 4096. With a single pin on the pic, you'll have to figure out some means to decode a bit stream. The speed of the bit stream could be as much a problem with the 6008 as with the parallel port. You should really buy a better piece of hardware for your project.

[Albert.Geven]

Hi

what you need for a steppermotor is
(when you don't need correct timing --> slow speed only) any digital output port.
If you want good timing you need either a multifunction Io board that has internal timing like the NI multifunction boards
or a micro that does the job.

The 6008 is a nice input module but lacks timing on output.
you need somethhing with correlated IO or real timed io.
but these are much more expensive to buy as a micro, but up and running immediately.
so it depends on how exact your timing needs are

[Bedreddin]

I need to control stepper motor but what I need is to control number of steps of motor by labview via parallel port. Please help me.

[Bedreddin]

I need to control stepper motor but what I need is to control number of steps of motor by labview via parallel port. Please help me.

Note: I use version 7.0

         I got a 8 bit I/O electronic card to control with printer port

[Albert.Geven]

What did you already try?

Did you use the outport vi and see something change on your inputs?
 

[Bedreddin]

Hi I'm sdsfd, from now on Bedreddin. I can control selenoidal valves, so I have already managed to use out port vi. It's very simple for me to do that. I can control all the 8 bit how ever I want. The thing that I want to learn is to control a stepper motor with a sub vi. I'm not a beginner for Labview. I'm ready for more compex things. Thanks for your reps.

[Bedreddin]

Actually I don't know much about step motors and so conrolling them with Labview.

[Adam W]

Hi Bedreddin,

By searching NI's website, I found several links which may prove helpful for you.  Check out this VI for using the parallel port to control a stepper motor.  It uses the Out Port.vi, which I think you said you have already tried, however this VI also has controls for speed and direction.  Also, Chris posted some link previously to a general parallel port VI using VISA, as well as a tutorial on writing to the parallel port in general.  If you're looking for more information on stepper motors specifically, you can check out this tutorial, which will give you some more background on them.  I also found a document that describes controlling a stepper motor in LabVIEW using a 6024E.

Hopefully these can get you started in the right direction!

Adam W
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[Bedreddin]

Thank you Adam.

I couldn't look for the vi's yet. But I found a device in our labratory using ST L297 stepper motor controller. The first thing that I gonna do is to look for the vi's if they are compatible with ST L297 if they aren't I have to modify them. If I can manage, I will sand a massege.