EET 2261 Unit 13

Controlling Stepper Motors and Servos

Read Almy, Chapter 21.

Homework #13 and Lab #13 due next

week.

Final Exam next week.

Stepper Motors and Servos

There are many kinds of electric motors.
(See Wikipedia article.)
In many motors, the rotor spins continuously,
with no way of precisely controlling the
motors rotational position.
Stepper motors and servos are two widely
used kinds of motors whose position can be
precisely controlled.

Coverage of Motors in the

Textbook
Our textbook does not discuss stepper motors
or servos (except in Question 7 on page 200).
But Chapter 21 discusses pulse width
modulation (PWM), which is the technique
used to control servos.

Stepper Motors
A stepper motor is a digitally controlled motor
that allows precise control over the position of
the motors rotor.
Changes in the digital input rotate the motors
rotor by a precise amount, which is called a
step or step angle.
Depending on the motor, this step angle may
be as small as 1 (or less) or as large as 45.
On our motors, the step angle is 3.6.

Electromagnets
Recall that an electromagnet behaves like a
magnet only when current is passing through
it. Its a magnet that you can turn on or turn
off.
Electromagnets are
constructed by wrapping wire
around an iron-alloy bar.
(Illustration from Wikipedia.)

Magnets in a Stepper Motor

A stepper motor has a permanent magnet
connected to its rotor and electromagnets
connected to its stator.
Simplified image from
John Iovines PIC
Microcontroller
Project Book, 2nd ed.

The digital signals controlling the motor turn

the electromagnets on and off in sequence,
which results in rotation of the rotor.

Rotating a Stepper Motor

(Simplified Picture)

In this example,
how big is each
step?

From John Iovines PIC

Microcontroller
Project Book, 2nd ed.

Half-Stepping
In the previous illustration, only one of the
electromagnets was on at a time.
We can get finer resolution by sometimes
turning on two electromagnets at a time. This
technique is called half-stepping.

Types of Stepper Motors

Different designs result in several types of
stepper motors:
Unipolar
Bipolar
Universal (which combine characteristics of
unipolar and bipolar motors)
Our motor is a unipolar stepper motor.

Wiring a Stepper Motor

The number of wires on a stepper motor
varies, depending on the motors type.
Bipolar Stepper Motor: 4 wires
Unipolar Stepper Motor: 5 or 6 wires
Universal Stepper Motor: 8 wires

Online Tutorial
The website at
http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/
contains an excellent online tutorial on
stepper motors, including this animation
showing the operation of a unipolar motor.

Our Stepper Motor

Our motor is made
by Howard Ind., part
number 1-19-4202.
As shown on its
specifications sheet,
its a unipolar motor
with a 3.6 step
angle.

Interfacing Problems
Two interfacing problems arise when driving a
motor from a digital system:
1. Motors introduce a great deal of electrical
noise into a system. This noise can
disrupt the operation of sensitive digital
circuits such as the HCS12.
2. Motors consume more current than most
digital outputs can supply. Therefore we
cant connect the motor directly to the
HCS12s output pins.

Solution to Interfacing Problem #1

(Noise)
Use separate power supplies, one for the
motor and one for the HCS12.
Well power our motor from
the 9 V pin in the Dragon12
boards lower left corner.
For this to work, we must
plug in the Dragon12s
power adapter, instead of
just powering the board
from its USB port.
If needed, we could also use an optoisolator, such as the
ILQ74, to provide further isolation between the HCS12 and
the motor.

Solution to Interfacing Problem #2

(Supplying Adequate Current)
Use one of the following circuits between the
HCS12 and the motor:
Power transistors, such as the TIP120.
Motor driver IC, such as the ULN2003 or the
TB6612FNG H-bridge. The Dragon12 board has a
TB6612FNG (U12 near the boards lower left
corner).

Toshiba TB6612FNG
This chip contains a popular driver design
called an H-bridge. It is often used to control
DC motors and stepper motors.
TB6612FNG datasheet.

Connections to TB6612FNG
On the Dragon12 board, the TB6612FNG is
connected to Ports B and P of the HCS12.

Figure from Dragon12 Schematic Diagram 5.

Code for Turning a Stepper Motor

Once youve made the proper connections
and configured the HCS12s ports, stepper
motors are easy to program. The following
code will turn our motor counterclockwise
(CCW):

Servos
A servo motor (or servo) is a package
containing a DC motor connected via gears to
a shaft.
It also contains a feedback circuit that
precisely controls the shafts angle of rotation.
Unlike a motor whose rotor spins
continuously, a servo is usually used to set
the shaft to a specific angle of rotation and
then hold it there for a while.

Servos in RC Vehicles
Servos are commonly used in small robotics
and in radio-controlled (RC) airplanes, cars,
and boats.
In an RC airplane, for example, servos may
control the planes throttle, rudder, elevators,
ailerons, landing gear, etc.
Next slide shows inner workings of an RC
airplane.

Servos and Stepper Motors

Servo: Exploded View

Servo: Block Diagram

Diagram above demonstrates feedback, in which a

systems output is fed back in as an input to provide
more accurate control over the output.
Feedback is a fundamental concept in most control
systems.

Wiring a Servo
Servos have three wires:
Power (red)
Ground (black)
Control signal (yellow or white)

Connecting Servos to the

Dragon12
The Dragon12 board has four connectors
(near the center of the top edge) for servos,
labeled PP4, PP5, PP6, PP7.
Jumper J35 lets you
choose whether to
power the servo from
the board or from an
external supply. Well
power it from the board,
but to do so we must have the power adapter
plugged in.

Dragon12 Connections
On the Dragon12 board, the servo outputs are
connected to Port P of the HCS12.

Figure from Dragon12 Schematic Diagram 5.

Our Servo
Our servo is made by
Hitec, part number
HS-311.
See ServoCitys
webpage for detailed
specifications.

Controlling a Servo
The servos control signal is a 50 Hz pulse
train. Therefore, what is this signals period?
As shown on the next slide, the width of the
pulse is crucial in controlling the servo.

Period = ?

Controlling a Servo
The control signals pulse width determines
the shafts angle of rotation.
Typically this pulse width ranges from about
0.5 ms to about 2.5 ms, interpreted as follows:
1.5 ms pulse width: 0 rotation.
Pulse width less than 1.5 ms: rotate
counterclockwise (up to 90, for our servo).
Pulse width greater than 1.5 ms: rotate
clockwise (up to 90).

Pulse Width Modulation

The term pulse width modulation (PWM)
refers to the technique of varying a signals
pulse width to control a device such as a
servo. (PWM is used to control other kinds of
devices, too, including DC motors.)

PWM Using the HCS12

One way to perform PWM using the HCS12
would be to write a loop that sets an output
pin HIGH and LOW at the right times to
generate pulses of the desired width and
frequency.
This approach would tie up a lot of the CPUs
time.
A more efficient way is to use the HCS12s
built-in PWM block. Using this approach, once
we have configured the PWM block correctly,
it will generate pulses of the desired width and

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

Block
The Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) block
shares pins with generalpurpose I/O Port P.
Figure from p. 6 of
textbook or page 23 of
Device User Guide).

Block Diagram of Pulse Width

Modulation (PWM) Block

The PWM blocks

eight channels let
us generate up to
eight different
PWM signals at
the same time.

See page 14 of the

PWM_8B8C
Block User Guide.

Special-Function Registers
Associated with the PWM Block

The 39 special-function registers located at

addresses $00A0 to $00C7 let us control the
operation of the PWM block.

See page 35 of Device User Guide.

Special-Function Registers That

Well Use

The following registers are the most

important ones for using the PWM block:

PWM Enable Register (PWME)

PWM Polarity Register (PWMPOL)

PWM Prescale Clock Select Register (PWMPRCLK)

PWM Scale A Register (PWMSCLA)

PWM Clock Select Register (PWMCLK)
PWM Channel Period Registers (PWMPERx):
one register for each of the eight channels
PWM Channel Duty Registers (PWMDTYx): one
register for each of the eight channels

PWM Enable Register (PWME)

The bits in this register let us enable or

disable each of the eight PWM channels. If
we enable a particular channel, then its I/O
pin cannot also be used for general-purpose
I/O as part of Port P.

Figure from p. 19 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

PWM Polarity Register (PWMPOL)

For each PWM channel, we can choose

whether the PWM signal starts HIGH and
then goes LOW in each cycle, or vice versa.

Figure from p. 20 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

PWM Clocks

The PWM block has four clocks that are

derived from the systems bus clock:

Clock A
Clock B
Clock SA (Scaled A)
Clock SB (Scaled B)

PWM Channels 0, 1, 4, 5 can use either

Clock A or Clock SA
PWM Channels 2, 3, 6, 7 can use either
Clock B or Clock SB.
The next three slides discuss the registers
that control these clocks.

PWM Prescale Clock Select

Register (PWMPRCLK)

The bits in this register set the frequencies

of Clock A and Clock B, as follows:

Figures from p. 23 of
PWM_8B8C Block User
Guide.

PWM Scale A Register

(PWMSCLA)

The 8-bit value in this register sets Clock

SAs frequency, according to the formula:

Figures from p. 28 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

PWM Clock Select Register

(PWMCLK)

Each PWM channel has one bit in this

register to select which clock it uses:

For PWM Channels 0, 1, 4, 5, we can choose

between Clock A and Clock SA.

For PWMM Channels 2, 3, 6, 7, we can choose

between Clock B and Clock SB.

Figure from p. 22 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

PWM Channel Period Registers

(PWMPERx)

Each PWM channel has one of these

registers.

The value in this register determines the

period (cycle time) of the signal generated
by the PWM channel:

Signal period = PWMPERx Period of selected clock source

Figure from p. 31 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

PWM Channel Duty Registers

(PWMDTYx)

Each PWM channel has one of these registers.

Assuming PWMPOL has been set so that the signal

starts HIGH, the value in this register determines
the pulse width (time high) of the signal generated
by the PWM channel:

Pulse width = PWMDTYx Period of selected clock source

Figure from p. 32 of PWM_8B8C Block User Guide.

Sample Code for Configuring

PWM Channel 4

Note that code is incomplete: you must

decide what values to load into PWMPER4
and PWMDTY4.