The process automation system we have envisioned is a standalone one using a PIC16C6x microcontroller,LCD and keyboard interfaces,their drivers,stepper motor actuators and other mechanical accessories etc. We have started the programming in MPLAB. 1. Is it enough if we give the stepper motor driver pulses direct from controllers I/O port or should we go for PWM o/p of the controller.? 2. We are programming in assembly language. since PIC has RISC architecture, We are facing difficulty with "floating" point multiplication and division(16 X 8). will any body help us with algorithms for this? 3. One stepper motor we intend to use, is a high power one,2 or 4 phased stepper motor, 100 to 150 W . are there any suppliers in india itself? pls do help us in all the three problems utmost regards, Achyuthan R

 

For low-cost stepper ideas (for lab or low-stress/low-speed production), look through all the kids/robotic web sites (start at http://www.wizard.org/ or http://www.robotcafe.com/). There's a lot of clever kids out there. Of course, you won't get $700 worth of value from a $25 solution, but for proof-of-concept it would work or maybe the result you get is good enough for your need. regards Lynn August Linse, Senior Product Application Engineer 15353 Barranca Parkway, Lantronix Inc, Irvine CA 92618 [email protected] www.lantronix.com Tel: (949)300-6337 Fax: (949)453-7152

 

1: You don't have any use of the PWM output when it comes to stepper motors at all. 2: Are you sure you need floating point operations? most often the job can be done using fixed point operations instead (that is basically integer operations, but you use a part of the integer as a supposed fraction) /Johan Bengtsson ---------------------------------------- P&L, Innovation in training Box 252, S-281 23 H{ssleholm SWEDEN Tel: +46 451 49 460, Fax: +46 451 89 833 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.pol.se/ ----------------------------------------