Will the TIC T249 operate as a stand alone or does it have to be conned to a PC?
TIC T249 has 6 different interfaces. USB, TTL serial, I²C, analog voltage (potentiometer), quadrature encoder, and hobby radio control (RC).
You can connect it directly to your computer by using the USB, you can connect it to arduino. You can also connect it to an RC system. It’s also possible to control it with a potentiometer. If you see the video, you’ll clearly understand.
If you ever consider making a low-budget unipolar stepper motor controller by yourself, you can see the following design: unipolar stepper motor control - Share Project - PCBWay
Hello, BobbyS.
rpiloverbd’s response seems to have covered your question fairly well; in short, you will need some way to tell it how to drive the stepper motor, but it does not have to be from a PC. Once it is configured via USB, you can power it separately and provide the control signals from some other device (e.g. RC transmitter/receiver, potentiometer, microcontroller, rotary encoder dial). If you describe what you are trying to do in more detail, I might have some more specific suggestions.
Brandon
Yes, thank you! I am going to drive it with an Ardunio probably I2C.
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Thank You rpiloverbd!
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You’re welcome, dear.
I am running the following procedure from The TIC Control Center.
OK, I have got to the point of operation for the TIC is good. I have read through the manual for “Homing” about 50 times and I have my limit switch working fine but when it stops the stepper it is suppose to wait 20ms then move the stepper away from the limit switch.
When the switch stops the stepper it does not move away from the limit switch and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.
The Tic only backs the motor away from the switch until the switch is no longer active, so it should be brief, but if you have a particularly noisy switch, it might be possible that the 20ms delay isn’t long enough, and the noise is interfering with the reading. You might try looking at your limit switch signal with an oscilloscope when it is triggered to see how it looks.
It might also be possible that however you are controlling the Tic is trying to command it beyond the limit switch, so immediately after homing, it is being driven into the switch. A video of your process showing how you are controlling the Tic, how you are initiating the homing procedure, and how the Tic responds would be really helpful. The forum does not allow users to post very large videos, but it does work well with videos linked from other sites (like YouTube or Vimeo).
Also, could you post a copy of your Tic settings file? You can save a copy of your settings file from the “File” drop-down menu of the Tic Control Center.
Brandon
The switch i am using is an optical switch and it stops the stepper like right now. If the TIC is reversing it is not doing it enough to release the switch. After it stops the stepper it is still showing the switch as active in the control center. "Do you want a video of the stepper moving into the limit switch zone or screen grabs of the TIC Control Center? I am moving the stepper with the “set position”. It stops the stepper but doesn’t reverse it.
Perhaps I do not have it set right. I just now noticed that in the TIC Control Center that it says;
Homing active: yes (this is yes when the stepper is running forward) but it will not reverse away from the forward switch after the switch stops it.
Here are my settings:
# Pololu Tic USB Stepper Controller settings file.
# https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J71
product: T249
control_mode: serial
never_sleep: false
disable_safe_start: false
ignore_err_line_high: false
auto_clear_driver_error: true
soft_error_response: decel_to_hold
soft_error_position: -5000
serial_baud_rate: 9600
serial_device_number: 14
serial_alt_device_number: 0
serial_enable_alt_device_number: false
serial_14bit_device_number: false
command_timeout: 1000
serial_crc_for_commands: false
serial_crc_for_responses: false
serial_7bit_responses: false
serial_response_delay: 0
vin_calibration: 0
input_averaging_enabled: false
input_hysteresis: 0
input_scaling_degree: linear
input_invert: false
input_min: 0
input_neutral_min: 2015
input_neutral_max: 2080
input_max: 4095
output_min: -5000
output_max: 2000
encoder_prescaler: 1
encoder_postscaler: 1
encoder_unlimited: false
scl_config: default
sda_config: default
tx_config: default
rx_config: default
rc_config: limit_switch_forward active_high
invert_motor_direction: true
max_speed: 50000000
starting_speed: 0
max_accel: 500000
max_decel: 0
step_mode: 4
current_limit: 160
current_limit_during_error: -1
auto_homing: true
auto_homing_forward: true
homing_speed_towards: 10000000
homing_speed_away: 10000000
agc_mode: off
agc_bottom_current_limit: 80
agc_current_boost_steps: 5
agc_frequency_limit: off
As an add on to my last post:
I think I may have figured out why this issue is happening. When the stepper gets to the optical switch it blocks the beam and stops the stepper…really fast…actually too fast. When the stepper stops, the beam is only partially blocked by the leading edge of a piece of plastic that I am using to block the beam. The input on the TIC sees 1.8 vdc at this point and stops the stepper. But, it stops the stepper so fast that the beam blocker doesn’t go far enough into the switch to make the switch go high with a 5 vdc signal to the TIC to make it reverse.
Upon further testing with a different stepper it still does it, except when I block the beam faster. Then it will reverse the stepper when the input to the TIC sees a full 5 vdc signal. The stepper is only one step away from making the switch go high.
I may end up running the switch into the Ardunio and put a short delay, then go into the TIC so the stepper can get one more step.
Crazy stuff lol!
Thank you for the additional information. Can you clarify what the actual problem is (e.g. can you control the stepper motor after the homing procedure runs)? Please note that since you are using a forward limit switch, the Tic will only be able to drive the stepper motor to negative position values after homing.
Also, are you able to look at the limit switch signal with an oscilloscope as I suggested before? If so, could you post screen captures of that signal?
Lastly, could you try using a different pin on the Tic, such as RX, for your limit switch and see if that changes the behavior at all?
Brandon
Ok, moving the limit switch to the RX pin did the trick! Now it stops and then reverses when it hits the limit switch.
The following is just for clarification in case someone else has a similar issue:
What it was doing is when the stepper reached the optical limit switch, the switch beam would see just the front edge of the stepper and it caused the optical switch to partially come on at just 1.8 volts. This was enough on the RC pin for it to stop the stepper but not reverse it.
Thanks for the help as it solved my issue!
For some reason I cannot get the stepper to get the same speed in my Ardunio/TIC code as it does in the IDE. In the IDE it will go really fast, but much slower with the code when the targetVelocity is set the same. Or at least I think it is the same lol.
Here is the code I am using:
// This example shows how to send I2C commands to the Tic
// Stepper Motor Controller to control the speed of a Stepper
// Motor.
//
// The Tic's control mode must be set to "Serial/I2C/USB". The
// serial device number must be set to its default value of 14.
//
// If you have sent a De-energize command to the Tic, for example
// by clicking "De-energize" in the Tic Control Center, you will
// need to undo that by clicking "Resume" or power-cycling the
// Tic.
//
// Please see https://github.com/pololu/tic-arduino for details
// on how to make the connections between the Arduino and the
// Tic.
#include <Tic.h>
TicI2C tic;
void setup()
{
// Set up I2C.
Wire.begin();
// Give the Tic some time to start up.
delay(20);
// Tells the Tic that it is OK to start driving the motor. The
// Tic's safe-start feature helps avoid unexpected, accidental
// movement of the motor: if an error happens, the Tic will not
// drive the motor again until it receives the Exit Safe Start
// command. The safe-start feature can be disbled in the Tic
// Control Center.
tic.exitSafeStart();
}
// Sends a "Reset command timeout" command to the Tic. We must
// call this at least once per second, or else a command timeout
// error will happen. The Tic's default command timeout period
// is 1000 ms, but it can be changed or disabled in the Tic
// Control Center.
void resetCommandTimeout()
{
tic.resetCommandTimeout();
}
// Delays for the specified number of milliseconds while
// resetting the Tic's command timeout so that its movement does
// not get interrupted by errors.
void delayWhileResettingCommandTimeout(uint32_t ms)
{
uint32_t start = millis();
do
{
resetCommandTimeout();
} while ((uint32_t)(millis() - start) <= ms);
tic.goHomeForward();
}
void loop()
{
// Move forward at X steps per second for X seconds.
tic.setTargetVelocity(30000000);
delayWhileResettingCommandTimeout(1000);
// Decelerate to a stop.
tic.setTargetVelocity(0);
delayWhileResettingCommandTimeout(500);
// Move in reverse at -X steps per second for X seconds.
tic.setTargetVelocity(-30000000);
delayWhileResettingCommandTimeout(1000);
// Decelerate to a stop.
tic.setTargetVelocity(0);
delayWhileResettingCommandTimeout(500);
}
How fast are you stepping it when you set the velocity in the Tic Control Center? You should see an indication of the target velocity in pulses per second under the slider (or inside of the “Operation” parameters box while it is running).
For reference, it looks like your Arduino program is setting the velocity to ±30000000, which is at ±3000 pulses per second, and the maximum speed in the settings file you posted was 5000 pulses per second. Also, please note that each pulse moves the stepper motor 1 micro-step, so different microstepping resolutions will result in different speeds.
Brandon
I set it both directions at ±3000 pulses per second in The Control Center and it moves very fast, much faster than the same speed setting in the code.
I am running the stepper at 1/4 step and I can even up the pulses per second to the max but it doesn’t change speed. It almost seems like something is throttling it.
EDIT: OK, I got some speed out of it! For some reason unknown to me, the stepper will not go the same speed with the code as it does with the Control Center. So, I went ahead and upped the speed in the code (10000 pulses/s)and got the speed I was looking for.
It is not clear to me why you are getting that behavior; it definitely is not normal. You should expect the same target velocity to give you the same result regardless of the interface used to set it.
It sounds like you might be happy with just setting the value higher, but if you want to troubleshoot that odd behavior further, please let me know, and I can suggest some tests to try.
Brandon
Yes I would like to find out why it is operating this way. The stepper works fine with the Control Center. What my plan was; get the speed and other settings sorted out with the TIC Control Center then it would be a simple matter of putting the same settings in the Ardunio code with the TIC library.
I had it originally programed with the Step/Dir pins on the TIC and I could not get higher speed with a pot to control the speed. So, I went with I2C to let the TIC control the pulses as it didn’t seem to be working with Step/Dir.
So using two different control formats, and getting same results, it seems to me that the Elegoo Uno R3 is where the issue is. Or me.
I mean, I am using one switch as an input at this point so it should not be complete rocket science.
Can you run the program you posted on your Arduino while the Tic is connected to the Tic Control Center and post details about what happens with the “Target velocity” and “Current velocity” values in the “Operation” box of the “Status” tab? It might help you see what is going on if you increase the delay in your code from 1 second to something like 10 seconds (if your system can handle that mechanically).
The “Target velocity” should match the value you are sending in your code with setTargetVelocity().
The “Current velocity” value should approach the target value and reach it at some point.
Brandon
Ok, ran it like you said and on the TIC Control Center the “Target and Current” were equal with what ever I entered on the program code.
Example:
Ardunio Code: tic.setTargetVelocity 30000000
Tic Control Center Target Velocity 30000000
Tic Control Center Current Velocity 30000000
I changed the Ardunio code To 300000000 and the TIC Control Center gave me the same reading; so now it seems to be working as the stepper speeds up like it is supposed to.
Maybe I had a zero left out? There are a lot of zero’s to contend with and on the Control Center they are small.
Now I can see what happens when I use a pot to control speed. I will move my Ardunio and TIC connections from Ic2 to serial so I can use SCL and SDA pins for my pot?
Thank You! 
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