Flutterby™! : Stepper Control

A big "three cheers" for StepperControl.com and their S100SMC controller. I fired it up with the NEMA23NSM motor, cobbled together fittings for our equipment out of bits bent from a computer case, and a cut up soda can for shims, and it drives our rig. Yes, it doesn't allow curves for acceleration, just straight lines, but that ramping lets us move our load smoothly enough that we're not throwing clothing around, and relative to all the other vendors we talked to this board has saved us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Now that we've played with it, I think I'm going to buy one to automate some stuff on my model railroad, and Phil wants to build a multi-axis telescope mount. The only thing missing from their documentation is that the motor block connectors are not insulation piercing, you've got to strip the insulation yourself, and the center post of the power connector is positive. What a great cheap way to get started with motion control. Recommended.

Too bad that, unlike the great guys at StepperControl.com, the manufacturers of the various cameras I'm looking at using in our system insist on NDAs that'd keep me from recommending one once I've had experience with it.