I have a problem with a X27 stepper motor that I'm using for a gauge. I'm not using a homing switch. So I think the stepper will just turn into one direction until it reaches the mechanical stop. I have done the configuration in Prosim, so the program knows how far the stepper should turn to reach a specific value.
When I now stop Mobiflight, the stepper is turning into one direction (I think it is going to the home position). But it seems to collide too hard with the mechanical stop and turns "empty" some steps. When I then run MobiFlight again it doesn't hit the correct values anymore. Is the a way to let it move more carefully into the home position?
#X27 stepper homes too strong
oak jolt
true jungle
is the end stop in your gauge or in the stepper itself?
also, mobiflight moves to zero point when you stop/close it
so your zero point needs to be in the "safe" range (like, indicated 0 and maybe not have a hard stop just there?
it is possible to set the stepper speed slower so it will not react so fast, and thus will not move so fast either, but the root of the problem is it should never hit the end stop or you get out if sync
the x27 is quite weak so make sure you don't move it too fast if your pointer is at all heavy, it might also skip steps there and could then end up hitting the stop when it has lost the calibration.
oak jolt
I will try to set it to a slower speed first. The end stop is in the stepper itself.
true jungle
Yea. you can also make it fully rotating pretty easily. See my entracnce to the youtuber scene! 😁
true jungle
@oak jolt was any of this helpful?
oak jolt
Yes, I lowered the speed but the problems seem to come from the difficult fixing of the needle on the shaft too. I try to switch now to a 28byj. The shaft of this stepper seems to be much bigger and gives more possibilities to fix a coupler on it.
oak jolt
@true jungle By the way, now I need the stepper motor to know where its zero position is. I'm trying to use a photointerruptor. It switches from ON to OFF when the stepper is reaching the position. We can assign a pin for an auto zero input but is this input expecting an ON value?
true jungle
do you 3d print your needles?
hm, this should probably be a setting in the stepper config that is not very difficult to do - I cannot talk on behalf of @exotic tide of course, but a photointerruptor sounds like a device that would be used in this task, and it is a valid use case to support that mode of operation too
oak jolt
I'm not printing the needle. Only the coupler that connects the needle to the stepper.
I have tested the device (H22A3) in Mobiflight. It can be configured like a button. I can see that the value is always 1 and changes to 0 when the light beam is interrupted.
true jungle
oh this is the BYJ28
you could likely use a logic gate to flip it
but I think it would make sense to just support a "normally closed" zero switch as it is a natural choice
exotic tide
if you take your switch and write it to a MF variable which you invert
then you can drive a pin with that which you could connect to the switch pin
true jungle
wait, was it a ref, or is it a pin?
never used the feature
was just adding a stepper to this arduino to see the gui
its a pin
ah right yeah
loopback
I wonder what kind of switches there usually are that are normally open and are used for this?
@oak jolt but you can have a very simple circuit too that inverts the logic
two resistors, or you can use a transistor too
so Input is the photointerruptor
no wait
this wont work with arduino input, wouldn't it, let me check
this should even work
exotic tide
you can try to invert by using an output that you connect to your switch pin. opto coupler -> input -> MF variable -> output -> read & invert -> display pin -> connected to AuoZro Pin
true jungle
yeah I know, that works too but this would do the same in hardware
true jungle
no this is just a resistor
even simpler than the first
the vertical line is the switch
it just connects the pullup to GND
so the pin 2 in this case is connected to gnd
no wait
is this the wrong way around too 😄
we connect pins to GND to make a switch "ON"
so I think the switch and resistor need to be swapped around
or wait dang
I am confused now 😄
but I am sure it can be done with a very simple circuit
right, need to think that the switch is inverted, normally open
true jungle
I think the transistor is cleaner
and I mean if you are writing an arduino project you just invert it in code
but I think you can have the switch wired between the input pin and 5V
and then connect the data pin to GND via 10kOhm resistor
so if the switch disconnects, the 10k acts as a pulldown and the pin goes low
but maybe use 1k also on the 5V pin, not sure if it is needed
so it is smaller resistance to the 5V than to GND
and the datapin is in the middle
I think it should work
I guess you can just leave the 1k out, I think it is safe to connect input pins to 5V directly
it is basically like how a potentiometer is connected
the side with less resistance is determining the state of the pin
and pots can be configured as switches
so yes, it actually does work
as long as you either have no resistor on the normally-connected switch side (5V) or a smaller resistor than the GND pulldown
@oak jolt so yes, 10k resistor lets you invert the logic
think how the potentiometer connection works
and try configuring a pot as a switch, it flips over at halfway
oak jolt
This gave me definitly some new inputs.
true jungle
😄 and a lot of confused speculation, sorry 😄
sand pike
While we speak about stepper and zeroing here, I have a question. My altimeter use only one stepper driving the longer needle, the others are gear driven from it. For now I use software zeroing, it works well until I put the pc to sleep and on wake up I have to turn MF off and on again and sync is lost. I’d like to add a hardware zero switch but how does it work with a stepper able to do multiple turns?
true jungle
Why do you need to restart MobiFlight when you wake up the computer? Shouldn't it catch up with the simulator after a moment? I know at least MSFS does not really like when the PC sleeps and wakes up and it takes a moment for it to become responsive again - would this feel like MF lost the connection and needs to restart or does it never regain it?
true jungle
For the future, a note with my moderator hat on: It is generally better to start your own message thread, even if you find a related one via search or while reading new posts. You can always use the "copy message link" feature and reference a different thread on your own question if you feel it is related.
Every question people have is often different even if they are about the same topic, and it can make it difficult to follow the troubleshooting if there are two or more separate issues in the same thread. We also use the "solved" label to see what threads have been resolved, so additional questions have a bigger risk of going unnoticed.
And it makes it harder for the original poster to follow up the answers.
sand pike
Why do you need to restart MobiFlight when you wake up the computer? Shouldn't i...
It’s exactly that, MF and msfs lost connection on wake up, all my buttons and led are unresponsive until I restart MF. MSFS is so long to start and I often fly tours where I take off from where I land before, so I like to let everything run and just sleep the PC.
sand pike
For the future, a note with my moderator hat on: It is generally better to star...
100% understood!
Do you like I copy my message in a new thread?