Hi, All
I recently purchased a Sainsmart Robot Arm with Nema17 Stepper motors with Home switches.
What do i need to buy for Flowbotics Studio to send Step and Direction signals?
I also have an Arduino Mega, but could not find anything inside Flowbotics other than Lynxmotion and Phidgets etc?
How do you send output commands to an Arduino?
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Carl
@Microcut Welcome to the community.
Unfortunately in terms of pre-made modules FBS, there are no generic stepper controller options. You’d need to create a new module which would sent appropriate commands to the controller you’re using. Hard to tell based on their website what electronics they are using, nor does there seem to be any documentation.
https://www.robotshop.com/flowbotics/developers/getting-started-tutorial.html
In terms of Arduino and FBS, there are no modules, but there’s a good reason for this - unlike the other components in FBS which are not “smart” (i.e. not programmable), an Arduino microcontroller requires programming. Any commands sent to an Arduino from the software would need to be “understood” by the Arduino, and any commands sent from the Arduino to the software would also need to be fully configured. This would require a specific “general” sketch be uploaded to the Arduino which would greatly restrict the Arduino’s functionality.
Hi cbenson
I haven’t given up hope yet, i did discover a great looking product from https://www.pololu.com.
Its called a TIC, there are several different models, but all can accept a wide range of inputs.
I can then directly interface the SSC-32U USB Servo Controller from Lynxmotion to a TIC (one for each motor).
Then i can run the FlowArm Software as if it was RC servos.
Thanks
Carl
Hi @Microcut,
Welcome to the RobotShop community! 
I’ll make the assumption here that your robot arm kit already comes with power electronics (to drive the servos) and only requires you to tell it how to move (step signal) and in which direction (direction signal). I’ll also make the assumption those signals and the home switches are all a typical digital level such as 5 V DC digital signals. If any of those assumptions are wrong please let me know! 
There are a few ways to set this up and it really depends on how you want to go about it. The simplest would be to use a general COM port in your FBS project directly. This is one of the primitive components available in the component bar on the left in the editor.
You can read more about this component in the component reference guide, pages 74-75.
As a general reference I also greatly recommend that you check out some if not most of this guide. It’ll help you understand better how to work with FBS to make apps for your projects. The object is pretty straight forward to use and once the port is open you can simply send/receive data from it directly.
For example on how to do complex stuff with it (such as controlling robots using a set protocol) have a look at the examples under the “Lynxmotion” category. Deep inside the modules you’ll find stuff like this:
From there, you’ll need some code running on your Arduino to control your stepper motor controller(s) and to use your serial communication to receive commands / send feedback.
This is where there are many choices such as implementing your own simple, custom protocol or something more general such as using Arduino Firmata to control the I/Os. You can also find some useful links and info on the (now no longer maintained) Wiki for it here. You can read more about the protocol here and the library here.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to connect to your stepper motor controller(s). Since FBS allows using external DLLs (more details in component reference, pages 91-92 & user guide, pages 183-203) and HTTP Post requests (component reference, page 166) directly you can pretty much connect any way you want through any interface of your choice.
A common way of connecting to stuff remotely nowadays is with a WiFi-enabled RPi or ESP board that hosts a web server over TCP/IP.
I hope this help you get started on figuring out what direction you wish to take.
Good luck with the project and let us know more with a robot post!
Sincerely,
That is certainly a good plan and simple to implement. Plus, there are plenty of examples on how to communicate with an SSC-32U.
Hi, scharette
Thanks for the reply, i’m waiting for the three TIC500 to arrive and begin testing.
I originally purchased the Sainsmart Nema arm because i wanted a simple robot arm to learn with, which would have smooth motion.
I’m new to robotics and useless at programming, the Arm arrived with nothing other than three motors, and limit switches.
in my experience in just bought three TB6600 stepper Drivers, but was unable to find any plug and play software.
Then i found the Flowmotion software, the Lynxmotion Flowarm is exactly what i would like to achieve for a controller.
My end goal is to build a retrofit Arm using real AC Servos, and build a GUI like Flowarm, i already use DMM Technology products on all my builds like CNC Mills and CO2 Lasers, so something like this, https://youtu.be/bNgpef1hewY
Its going to be a steep learning curve, but i believe Flowmotion is the perfect software to accomplish the task.
Thanks
Carl
https://www.youtube.com/user/CeeltdNew
Not too surprised. Sainsmart aren’t exactly known for complete products with proper documentation… 
Hopefully you’ll figure out a way to work with it that will fit your purposes nicely!
