Hello,
I am currently working on a project in my university that envolves an Arduino sending commands (through UART port) to a Cytron SD02B driver in order to control a stepper motor. I bought 2 of these drivers and used a code provided by Cytron at cytron.com.my/viewProduct.php?pcode=SD02B to test the SD02B and the connections with the controller and the motor as well.
The first driver I tested worked well during the first 3 to 5 minutes and then it stopped to work. I checked all the connections and voltage levels, and they were correct. Then, I tested the second Cytron SD02B and the same problem happened, i.e., it worked only during the first 3 to 5 minutes and stopped. Since all the connections are properly done and I am using the code provided by Cytron, the drivers should not show such problem.
However, the drivers work if I use the inputs PULSE, DIR, EN, etc, but I need to use serial communication in order to have more flexibility while controlling speed and acceleration.
Does anyone have any ideas about what causes such problem and/or how to solve it?
Thank you,
Jose
Hello Jeffrey,
Thank you very much for the reply. I did the tests you told me and the drivers still don’t work when I use serial communication, so maybe the thermal protection is not the problem (they were turned off for many hours before I do the tests). I also downloaded and tried the GUI Application, but it seems that the drivers are not being able to communicate with any other devices through UART.
Are there any other tests I could try?
Thank you,
Jose
Hi Jeffrey,
When I push and hold the Test button the stepper motor rotates counterclockwise as it should, but with different velocities for each driver. I tried pressing the Reset button and then tried my program again (I tried that many times actually), and the drivers still don’t communicate with the Arduino through UART.
I bought the drivers from robotshop.com a few weeks ago, is there the possibility of the drivers have been delivered with issues? If yes, how can I replace them?
Thank you,
Jose
Hi Jose,
If you reconnect the first driver, can you make it work again? If so, we think that the thermal protection circuit may be cutting-off the power to protect the driver. This behavior is described on pages 8 and 20 of the manual, available under Useful Links on the product page:
Have you tried using the GUI application available for Windows? It is also available in the Useful Links tab. When you have downloaded the main ZIP file, extract the contents of the SD02B_GUI.zip file and launch the SD02B GUI.exe file found in the bin/Relase directory.
Hope this helps,
Hi Jose,
Could you tell us what happens when you push (and hold) the Test button? And you said the PULSE/DIR/EN pins are still working, right?
Have you tried pressing the Reset button and then tried your Arduino program again?
If this doesn’t work, we would recommend contacting the manufacturer directly for specialized support: [email protected] or cytron.com.my/support.php.
Hope this helps,
Hi Jose,
This does sound unusual. Could you contact the manufacturer directly ([email protected] or cytron.com.my/support.php) to see if they can determine what is the problem.
If they determine that the product is defective, please let us know at [email protected] (include a transcript of the manufacturer’s replies) and we will proceed to get you an exchange.
Please let us know if we can help with anything else.
Thanks for choosing RobotShop,
