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

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.

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.

Saving your IO Keys

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.

This guide was first published on Feb 18, 2019. It was last updated on Feb 18, 2019.

This page (Adafruit IO Setup) was last updated on Feb 11, 2019.

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