Camera Slider / Dolly - MakerSlide + Arduino + CNC Shield + A4988 Driver + 42BYGH4417 Stepper Motor

One dimension movement is the most basic practice to position. By following the design of simple camera slider by Bart Dring from Inventables, I have made my own camera dolly and changed the pulley and belt of  gt2 specification for easy steps calculation.

The use of CNC Shield is optional, it is used just for easy extension to y-axis and z-axis.

Connection

1. Stack CNC Shield on Arduino Uno or Mega2560
2. Connect CNC Shield to power supply with voltage 8-35V
3. Connect CNC X axis to 42BYGH4417 stepper motor

Photo

Connections 

Dolly In Motion

Sketch

// simple stepper motor control 
// only x axis is used for dolly
#define EN 8 / / stepper motor enable
#define X_DIR 5/ / x axis direction control
#define Y_DIR 6/ / y axis direction control
#define Z_DIR 7/ / z axis direction control
#define X_STP 2/ / x axis step control
#define Y_STP 3/ / y axis step control
#define Z_STP 4/ / z axis step control

/*
// step(): to control direction and steps of stepper motor
// parameter: dir for direction control, 
//                   dirPin maps to DIR pin of stepper motor,
//                   stepperPin maps to STEP pin of stepper motor
// return value: none
*/

void step(boolean dir, byte dirPin, byte stepperPin, int steps)
{
  digitalWrite(dirPin, dir);
  delay(50);
  for (int i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
    digitalWrite(stepperPin, HIGH);
    delayMicroseconds(800);
    digitalWrite(stepperPin, LOW);
    delayMicroseconds(800);
  }
}

void setup (){
  // setup stepper motor I/O pin to output
  pinMode(X_DIR, OUTPUT); pinMode(X_STP, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Y_DIR, OUTPUT); pinMode(Y_STP, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(Z_DIR, OUTPUT); pinMode(Z_STP, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(EN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(EN, LOW);
}

void loop (){
  // 200 steps per turn
  step(false, X_DIR, X_STP, 1800); // run 360 mm
  step(false, Y_DIR, Y_STP, 200); 
  step(false, Z_DIR, Z_STP, 200); 
  delay(1000);
  step(true, X_DIR, X_STP, 1800);  // run 360 mm in reverse direction
  step(true, Y_DIR, Y_STP, 200); 
  step(true, Z_DIR, Z_STP, 200); 
  delay(1000);
}