Quote:
Originally Posted by MrB
Interesting, will investigate.
Jaycar sells a USB --> RS232 Serial converter and a USB --> Parallel converter. $39.95 each. Cat#'s XC4834 and XC4847 respectively.
|
Jaycar got a few visits from me recently. I bought a plastic worm gear from them, just to keep the brain ticking about how to drive the scope.
I did look at the jaycar ones a few months ago (steppers). The step was 7.5 degrees. Thought it was a bit too much.
I actually got the idea to buy a USB to RS232 converter, as with the system I bought, it was going to be plugged into a late model laptop.
But I didn't, as I read a webpage about the parallel / serial port wouldn't do well with the conversion.
I haven't tested/tried it, so I can't confirm it, it was on my mind a bit, as I thought it couldn't be that hard, but someone did (by memory it was using a Bartel design stepper system) try it and it failed (or was told it didn't go so well)
I found a great little piece of software to drive the steppers, it's really basic and it works. One of the best and easiest to use, just to get it working.
Though it's limited to about 1 minute of operation until you pay $2.95 .
Got it from
www.electronics-diy.com and it's called "Stepper Motor Controller".
It's not DOS, it's a windows GUI.
My project has stalled slightly.
Lack of funds as other priorities tend to take precedence.
House, Car Loans, Bathurst Race trip in Oct, O/S trip that the wife is organising..
Due to the slowdown, no o/t, no increase in wage (not even CPI), some things are on the down low. But I kept my job (err... for the moment).
But I have had a hard time finding a worm gear system to guide the scope, that's within a reasonable budget for functionality. Found a couple of ways, some with no backlash (yay!!!)..Hard searching though.
Whilst the funds are low, it has now led me to do the heathenous thing, of a direct drive as a trial, till the funds get back to a good point.
Direct drive concept is only on my mind, as "can it" work under a digital driver. As per quote "We do it, not because it's easy, but because it's hard". Not expecting 100% accurate results but worth a crack.