Fireduino and AccelStepper Stepper motors

Chip Platform Rockchip
1

Hello :slight_smile:

Specs :

  • I have a Fireduino bought few month ago
  • I use ArduinoIDE-1.8.0_for_Fireduino_1.3.1
  • Windows 10 Pro N
  • On a MacbookPro 2015 (15")

I 'm trying to drive stepper motors with the Fireduino.
Compared to an Arduino DUE the Fireduino is way faster for that task !!! really nice to see an “arduino like” board driving steppers motors so fast.

The problem :
So with that kind of very simple code it seems to work :
Working code :

#define STEP_PIN 5

void setup() {
    pinMode(STEP_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void step(long stepDelay) {
    digitalWrite(STEP_PIN, HIGH);
    delayMicroseconds(stepDelay);
    digitalWrite(STEP_PIN, LOW);
    delayMicroseconds(stepDelay);
}

void loop() {
    // rotate by 100 steps.
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
        step(140); //140 seems to be the fastest rate for my motors. (ST5918L2008-A)
    }
}

But when I try to use a code with the Accelstepper library, nothing seems to move anymore…
For exemple that one :
Not working code :

#include <AccelStepper.h>

// Define two steppers and the pins they will use

AccelStepper stepper1(1, 3, 2); // pin 3 = step, pin 2 = direction
AccelStepper stepper2(1, 5, 4); // pin 5 = step, pin 4 = direction
AccelStepper stepper3(1, 7, 6); // pin 7 = step, pin 6 = direction

int pos1 = 1000;
int pos2 = 0;
int pos3 = 0;

void setup()

{

 Serial.begin (115200);

  stepper1.setMaxSpeed(16000);
  stepper1.setAcceleration(1000);

  stepper2.setMaxSpeed(16000);
  stepper2.setAcceleration(1000);

  stepper3.setMaxSpeed(16000);
  stepper3.setAcceleration(1000);

}

void loop()

{

  if (stepper1.distanceToGo() == 0)
  {
    pos1 = -pos1;
    stepper1.moveTo(pos1);
  }

  if (stepper2.distanceToGo() == 0)
  {
    pos2 = -pos2;
    stepper2.moveTo(pos2);
  }

   if (stepper3.distanceToGo() == 0)
  {
    pos3 = -pos3;
    stepper3.moveTo(pos3);
  }

  stepper1.run();
  stepper2.run();
  stepper3.run();

  Serial.print("A");
  Serial.println(stepper1.currentPosition());

  //Serial.print("B");
  //Serial.println(stepper2.currentPosition());

  //Serial.print("C");
  //Serial.println(stepper3.currentPosition());

}

It moves clockwise/anti-clockwise as expected with the Arduino Due and Arduino UNO.
But with the Fireduino nothing happens :-/

Is there any incompatibility beetween AccelStepper and the fireduino ?
Seems strange because the file AccelStepper.cpp seems to use a similar command to move the stepper motors as the first sketch that I gaved here :

AccelStepper.cpp (Just a sample that seems to do the “pulse” job for the stepper) :
AccelStepper.cpp “step1” :

void AccelStepper::step1(long step)
{
    (void)(step); // Unused

    // _pin[0] is step, _pin[1] is direction
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // Set direction first else get rogue pulses
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b11 : 0b01); // step HIGH
    // Caution 200ns setup time
    // Delay the minimum allowed pulse width
    delayMicroseconds(_minPulseWidth);
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // step LOW
}

I don’t really understand why the motors don’t move at all with the same code on the Fireduino :-/

Thanks for your attention.
Regards,

satolas

PS : stepper.h (included with the arduino and Fireduino library don’t work either)

2

:slight_smile:
By the way the sample from stepper.cpp

void Stepper::stepMotor(int thisStep)
{
  if (this->pin_count == 2) {
    switch (thisStep) {
      case 0:  // 01
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_1, LOW);
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_2, HIGH);
      break;
      case 1:  // 11
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_1, HIGH);
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_2, HIGH);
      break;
      case 2:  // 10
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_1, HIGH);
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_2, LOW);
      break;
      case 3:  // 00
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_1, LOW);
        digitalWrite(motor_pin_2, LOW);
      break;
    }

Also not working

3

Any idea ? :-/

4

Okay :slight_smile:
Just to don’t let that post without solution :

kind of weird, but adding that does the trick:
pinMode(_pin[0], OUTPUT);
pinMode(_pin[1], OUTPUT);

We are just repeating the pinMode status to output. Then it happening something finally :slight_smile:
By the way on a DUE, the code without that two lines its working…so maybe developpement boards have their own sensibility at the end :smiley:

so instead of :

void AccelStepper::step1(long step)
{
    (void)(step); // Unused

    // _pin[0] is step, _pin[1] is direction
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // Set direction first else get rogue pulses
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b11 : 0b01); // step HIGH
    // Caution 200ns setup time
    // Delay the minimum allowed pulse width
    delayMicroseconds(_minPulseWidth);
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // step LOW
}

Write that :

void AccelStepper::step1(long step)
{
    (void)(step); // Unused

	pinMode(_pin[0], OUTPUT);
	pinMode(_pin[1], OUTPUT);

    // _pin[0] is step, _pin[1] is direction
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // Set direction first else get rogue pulses
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b11 : 0b01); // step HIGH
    // Caution 200ns setup time
    // Delay the minimum allowed pulse width
    delayMicroseconds(_minPulseWidth);
    setOutputPins(_direction ? 0b10 : 0b00); // step LOW
}
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