I am looking to add 3 automatic opening chook doors to the revamped and more secure chook house I am presently constructing. Also I am a bit of an electric novice so please forgive my “dumb” questions
I have studied this project from your project list https://core-electronics.com.au/projects/iot-chicken-shed-arduino-wifi and it would appear as if this will fulfil some of my requirements, I thought his threaded rod was a preferred option and more secure than chord as others have done. However I have the following questions
I observe that the motor sheild board attached to the Arduno will drive 2 step motors. Is there another suitable motor I can drive from the board so as to negate the need to have to purchase two motor shield boards
Can the arduino run programs for 3 seperate opening and closing doors.
I would like to set times for each door is that possible with the arduino suggested.
I do not require at this stage wireless connectivity however it needs to power either a red or green led to advice me that the doors are closed or opened.
please advise on how I can obtain the software links if necessary for the arduino
Could you please advise me the cheapest and best option for my projects
For handling multiple steppers you’re probably best to go with an individual driver for each motor as we don’t have shields capable of running more than 2 steppers. For this application, you could probably also just use a DC motor with a rotary encoder.
An Arduino should be able to handle what you want to do no worries. Most stepper drivers will have an Arduino library for them already, usually listed on our product pages, then the only code you have to write is the high-level control.
I’ve listed a few suggested products below to get you started.
Hi Thank you for your suggestions. I am very much a novice to this so I have some questions
Do I need a stepper motor driver per motor or do a purchase a make block megaPi stepper motor driver or do I need both for each motor?
If I decided to use 6v geared motor with encoder does that plug straight into the arduino or do I purchase a n-drive shield If so how do I reduce the voltage from 12v which the Arduino runs to 6v for the motor?
Again my apologies for the dumb questions.
No worries. I just listed 2 different stepper drivers to show you a couple of options, you’ll only need one stepper driver per motor.
An arduino can only handle very small currents, so you will need to use some kind of power control electronics which allow the Arduino to control high current/voltage loads without suffering damage. This is the purpose of the N-Drive Shield.
If you need to go from 12v DC down to 6v DC you’ll need a DC DC Step down (or Buck) converter. Something like this would do fine:
FYI, the Arduino Uno operates at 5v. It has a built-in buck converter to allow it to operate from a higher voltage supply (anywhere from 6v-15v).
Hi Oliver,
Many thanks for your advice and information. I will do my best to work something out from what you have sent me and If I need any more advice I will send another message via the forum.
Cheers
Martin
Hi support team / Oliver,
Thank you for your responses I think I now have it sorted however I have one quick point of clarification. If I went with a Metal DC Geared Motor w/Encoder - 6V 100RPM 6.5Kg.cm X 3 does that mean they could all be controlled by the free tropics N-drive shield. If so you indicated that the code would be available for the stepper motor would it also be available for the geared DC motor. Also do I need reed switches to tell arduino when to stop or can work out where the door is on its journey. Again my apologies for uneducated questions I am starting from no knowledge so steep learning curve.
Thank you
Hi support team
My apologies I have one more question in respect of motors. Oliver suggested a coded dc motor rather than a stepper motor. However the reason I went with the stepper was that there is a 5ml to 8ml Flexi coupler which I need for the threaded rod and I observe the dc geared motor shaft is 4ml. Thank you for your assistance. - Martin
Very sorry about the delay! We have a couple of new team members starting up this week, so we’ve got a bit extra on our hands training them up but they’ll soon be up and running and we’ll be able to keep up with everyone’s technical queries again!
A fair decision! There’s always a lot of factors to consider when engineering a system, and it’s not always the big name plate factors like power and torque that steer you down a particular path.
Yes and No. It depends on how you want to control them. If you need reversability and independent control, you’ll need to use the MOSFETS on the N-drive to act as an H bridge, you’d only be able to drive 1.5. If you don’t need independent control, you might get away with just the x6 MOSFETs.
Likewise, if you only needed to turn the motors in one direction all the time, you could also just use the one N-drive shield.
Generally you should always use some kind of switch for the end stop. It’s just a much safer design. If there’s any change at all to your system over time (i.e. it slips in its positioning, or your position information has a small error which accumulates over time) you will eventually be somewhere other than where you think you are, and you’re likely to crash something into something else or break something.
This is known as Open Loop control - it can work, but you want to be certain your setup will never change, or that if it does change it won’t matter.
Hi Oliver
Thank you for your advice very helpful in my planning.
Can I please clarify therefore that Core electronics do not have a 4ml to 8ml flex converter. I am happy to use the dc geared motor with encoder as I think it would cheaper with additional boards to control this motor. However I could not see that you sold a 4ml - 8ml converter.
Many thanks for your assistance
That’s correct. We’ve got a few different sizes, but no 4mm-8mm. Sometimes you can get away with a bit of stiff rubber hose clamped on tightly with hose clamps. If you can source one that’s say 4mm to 6mm, you could also try drilling the 6mm side out to 8mm.
