Hi I’m new here…hello folks! This may be better placed in another category but my work use an old browser and I was not able to scroll down to see the full range of categories…
I’m planning to scan some old cine film, and I want to control one of the reels using a pc based system, with a controller and a stepper motor. Precision is important obviously, and I don’t think it will take much power to drag the cine (it’s on a 200ft reel).
My main hope is that someone could perhaps suggest a combination of controller and motor. I have seen the Phidgetstepper bipolar at around £100. Is this overkill? It does need to be USB.
All I need the pc software to do is to instruct the motor to turn x number of small steps in order to advance to the next frame. It’s very old film stock, and the projector route is not viable in terms of quality.
I’m a newbie to stepper motors. I knew they existed and that’s about it. Wonder if you could help? Thanks.
NJ
Hello @NackJich and welcome to the RobotShop community,
A stepper motor is a great choice for your project! But it is hard to tell if the Phidgetstepper Motor Controller is an overkill when you haven’t chosen a stepper motor.
First, you need to choose a motor according to your requirements. Speed and torque don’t seem really important for your project but step count (resolution) and size might be so you can keep this in mind to limit your options. I suggest checking the stepper motors comparison list to choose one. Then you can choose the motor controller, for that you have to check the nominal voltage, the current per coil and if the motor is unipolar or bipolar, you can read more about this here.
If you need a 1/16 step resolution, 10-30VDC and 4A (max) then the Phidgetstepper is a perfect option if not you can find other options here
Those are the Tic family of stepper motor controllers that can be configured using a free configuration utility (for Windows, Linux, and macOS). That software simplifies initial setup of the device and allows for in-system testing and monitoring of the controller via USB (a micro-B USB cable is required to connect the Tic to a computer).
I hope this information can help you out
Let us know if you have other questions
