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.
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
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.
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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.
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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:
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Stepper motors can use four different step styles. Use a momentary button to configure the style of step.
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After setting up the first momentary button, you'll want three more. The press/release values should be set accordingly:
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.
You are also going to need your Adafruit IO username and secret API key.
Navigate to your profile and click the View AIO Key button to retrieve them. Write them down in a safe place, you'll need them for later.