Mini auto-traversing winder

[Lyrebird Steve]

a Stepper Slave (or SL+)
https://www.pc-control.co.uk/ocart/i...&product_id=75
could probably run the whole shebang via USB and using limit switches could have you well on the way to un-attended winding.

My Mark I auto-traversing winder uses a Stepper Bee controller from these guys and it is very stable, however there are far fewer built in capabilities compared to the Phidgets controllers.

Primarily the big advantage of the Phidget controller is that the controller is aware of where it is in the step count. You just send a step count to work towards and it adjust direction of the motor to get to that count. So if your traverse is 2000 steps, you sent a command to move to 2000. When it gets to 2000 you send move to 0 and it moves back to the starting position.

Combining this with the counter for the Rotational stepper you can easily set an auto traverse pattern.


Sure, the Phidgets are more expensive ... but they are much simpler and more flexible programmatically.


Cheers
Steve

[jrdamien]

Why is the Phidget AND the Motor Hawk needed? Couldn't the Motor Hawk handle it all?

[kayakerca]

Why is the Phidget AND the Motor Hawk needed? Couldn't the Motor Hawk handle it all?

You can definitely build an auto traverse winder with just the Phidgets biopolar stepper controllers.

[jrdamien]

You can definitely build an auto traverse winder with just the Phidgets biopolar stepper controllers.

Is there a less expensive board that can be used as a controller (with a usb interface) for the sake of a very inexpensive traverse?

[kayakerca]

Is there a less expensive board that can be used as a controller (with a usb interface) for the sake of a very inexpensive traverse?

Sorry but I can't help you with that. I was only smart enough to use the "simple to operate" Phidgets controllers. I guess "simple to operate" = "more $$$".

[RedHouse]

You made me look up "Yankee Drill" in Google. I guess being from the Great White North, I called it by a different name, 'cause I sure recognized it!

Wow what a flash-back when reading that. Back in the early 70's I lived in a cheap apartment complex where a lot of refugees were (just after the Vietnam war) and there was a family living upstairs with 2 brothers, one of whom was a friend of mine. He worked at a factory that made construction trailers and one day he was telling me about what he did at work and because he was "new" in town his English speaking was difficult, but he told me he assembled something and say "screw with ankie" and made a motion with his hand that looked like he was pulling someone's pecker. Several times I asked him again "what is that you're doing at work?" and he would make the motion and say "screw with ankie" so I just didn't know what to think so I asked him "where is it you work?".
(wasn't sure what the heck he was telling me)

So anyway about a week later he comes over to my apartment and knocks on the door and when I opened it he was standing there with one of these in his hand:



I laughed out loud and finally understood the stroking motion he was making and the "ankie" (he couldn't pronounce the "Y") and we laughed.

Later after he had been in the country for a few years and he could speak better I brought up the whole "ankie" thing and explained to him what I thought he was saying, and how it was good that he brought the tool over and showed me, we laughed about it again "I screw with ankie"

Too funny.