Where to start motion control as a newbie?

Hello nice girls and guys.

I am a photographer and recently bought a highspeed-camera. Now I want to film some Visual Engineering stuff with that, eg. make some (stepper) motors throw some strawberries and blueberries again and again with the same force and speed, so I get a reliable movement of the things I'd like to film.

Now what I am looking for: Is there any software that is dedicated for controlling motors/light barriers/sensors etc. via Arduinos or whatever hardware? So I don't have to start from scratch? Or ist there a C# framework dedicated to that? I'd be happy if there is some Open Source software for that?

Thanks for answering such newbie question! Martin...
 
Hello nice girls and guys.

I am a photographer and recently bought a highspeed-camera. Now I want to film some Visual Engineering stuff with that, eg. make some (stepper) motors throw some strawberries and blueberries again and again with the same force and speed, so I get a reliable movement of the things I'd like to film.

Now what I am looking for: Is there any software that is dedicated for controlling motors/light barriers/sensors etc. via Arduinos or whatever hardware? So I don't have to start from scratch? Or ist there a C# framework dedicated to that? I'd be happy if there is some Open Source software for that?

Thanks for answering such newbie question! Martin...
Hello Nice guy...

We can advise you on some videos for examples on how to control DC motor with arduino..
There is also sensor like effect hall sensor (have a search on this item too..)

Cheers
James
 
Hello James,

thanks a lot for your reply. I know how to program motors with arduino, but this is not what I am after. I wonder if there is maybe a open source software, a project or any framework that makes it possible to trigger and synch multiple motors/devices from a single computer.

Say I have three different motors which shall be started in a varying order with variable accelerations and delays or maybe should be triggered by maybe two or three sensors. Then it is hard to code that on an Arduino, it would be great to have a central software that makes it possible to easily configure the whole setup and the distributes it to multiple Arduinos or so.

Now maybe I already found at least the name of what I am after, a PLC? Is this the direction I have to go for?

Thanks, Martin
 
Generating the motion profiles is the most difficult part of a good motion controller. I doubt you will find open source software for this. However, this is one approach you might take and that is to use splines or what PLCs call cam tables. This way you can start all three splines at once but each spline can have its own motion profile. There is open source software for splines. The problem will be the interface. For instance it would be nice to use Excel to edit and graphically show what each spline will do and the phase relationship between them but then you need a way of downloading this to you Arduino.

You have a lot of work ahead of you. It may be faster to just buy a good quality stepper motor controller that can synchronize axes.
 
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