Wireless Dual Stepper Control with Adafruit IO, Raspberry Pi and Python

published February 18, 2019, last edited January 22, 2025

posted in Raspberry Pi Programming/ MicroPython / CircuitPython Breakout Boards/ Motor Controls

Intermediate

Project guide

Adafruit IO Setup

If you do not already have an Adafruit IO account set up, head over to io.adafruit.com to link your Adafruit.com account to Adafruit IO.

Feeds Setup

The first step is to create a new Adafruit IO feed to hold the stepper motor's number of steps. Navigate to the feeds page on Adafruit IO. Then click Actions -> Create New Feed, and name this feed stepper1steps.

If you do not already know how to create a feed, head over to Adafruit IO Basics: Feeds.

You'll also want to create two more feeds to hold the first stepper's direction and the step size:

stepper1direction
stepper1stepsize

Then, create three more feeds (for the second stepper):

stepper2steps
stepper2direction
stepper2stepsize

and one to control the stepper 'Go!' button

stepperstart

Dashboard Setup

Next, step is to create an interactive dashboard to send data to the stepper motors from the Adafruit IO website.

If you do not know how to create or use Dashboards in Adafruit IO, head over to the Adafruit IO Basics: Dashboards guide.

Adding Sliders for Stepper Step Amount

To control the amount of steps each stepper takes, add a slider block to the dashboard.

Set Choose Feed to stepper1steps
Set Block Title to Stepper 1
Set Slider Min Value to 0
Set Slider Max Value to 100
Set Slider Step Size to 10 - the stepper will step by 10 steps each time the slider is toggled.

After setting up the first slider block, set up a second one attached to the stepper2steps feed to control stepper 2.

Adding Toggle Blocks for Stepper Direction

To control the direction of the stepper, add a toggle block to the dashboard.

Set Choose Feed to stepper1direction
Set Block Title to Direction
Set Button On Text to Backward
Set Button Off Text to Forward

After setting up the first toggle block, set up a second one attached to the stepper2direction feed to control stepper 2.

Adding Buttons

To send the stepper motor configurations to the stepper motors - create a momentary push-button block:

Set Choose Feed to stepperstart
Set Button Text to Go
Set Press Value to 1
Set Release Value to 0

Stepper motors can use four different step styles. Use a momentary button to configure the style of step.

Set Choose Feed to stepper1stepsize
Set Button Text to Single Step
Set Press Value to STEPPER.SINGLE
Set Release Value to STEPPER.SINGLE

After setting up the first momentary button, you'll want three more. The press/release values should be set accordingly:

Double Step -> STEPPER.DOUBLE
Interleave -> STEPPER.INTERLEAVE
Microstep -> STEPPER.MICROSTEP

You'll also want to make four more buttons for the second stepper (stepper2stepsize feed)

Here's an example of a complete dashboard for this project:

If you're an IO Plus user, you can set an image as an dashboard header. If you'd like to use the header created for this guide, right-click the image below to download it.