Category Archives: Rants

Feldman Project Log Day 2

  • Worked with Phil to get framework together
  • Got it working.  Need to declare Enum completely in parent class so all states that children are going to use should be declared there.
  • Must use parent variables for Enum.  If not they will not be able to set equal to the other.
  • Made angleToSteps formula _angle/1.8 * 16 this seems to work very accurately.  Obviously the Stepper with the gear box will need a separate formula to move it correctly but this will work for the other 2.
  • Tried to get it to loop the movement not working currently.  Only move once per run.

Feldman Project Log Day 1

  • Plugged in and tested InterFace kit(http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=0&product_id=1019) and Stepper Controller(http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=13&product_id=1063) using the drivers found http://www.phidgets.com/drivers.php.  Easy way to make sure things are working just open up the phidget control panel and double click on the controller you want to test and an interface with options relevant to the controller pops up.  This is also a good way to find the optimal settings for the stepper motor because you can change all of them just by using the sliders.
  • Started playing with some of the example programs.  It is important to note that the standard C examples will not work with Visual Studio.  You need to use the VC++ examples.  When creating a new project the include and library file directories will have to be added.  An example of what settings to change can be found at http://www.steptools.com/support/stdev_docs/express/help/settings_vcnet.html.
  • Edited the Callback for the input change to activate output 0 and 7 when input 0’s button is pushed.   Noticed that 0 and 7 had the opposite negative and positive.  Looking at the board I realized the two ends on the output side are grounds.  This is also true on the input side.  Not sure but this might mean that we always need one of the leads to go to one of the ends to work.
  • Edited motor controller example tried to make it so the motor would spin one rotation and stop.  Could not get it to stop accelerating.  It would start off stalled due to low acceleration, work for sometime in the middle, stall again because it went over its max speed.  Tried changing max speed but that did not seem to do anything.  The velocity limit was set to 1/2 max and the acceleration was set to 2*min.  It is possible that the current wasn’t set right to go over a certain amount.  Can also set it so when speed is x acceleration is 0 using change velocity event handler.
  • Both examples worked with both controllers plugged in.  I think you only need to specify if you have two of the same items like two stepper controllers.  In the case of two stepper controllers there is an index that you can pass in the parameters of the stepper methods.  One way to make sure the steppers keep the same index every time is to identify them by serial number.  There might be other ways but this way is recommended in the general programming manual http://www.phidgets.com/documentation/Programming_Manual.pdf.