FPGA-based stepper moor controller with RS-232 interface

Abstract

Stepper Motors are widely utilized in several applications of our everyday life where precise movement is an asset. The motors move in discrete steps as commanded. Controlling a Stepper Motor requires energizing the motor windings with standard sequences. Different types of stepper motor drivers/controllers exist and were investigated to decipher the most important features to design a fully embedded universal controller with Recommended Standard 232 (RS-232) Interface. Stepper motors are commonly employed in computer peripherals such as, printer paper feeder and floppy drives, machine tools, medical equipment, automotive devices and small business machines. The Universal Stepper Motor designed integrated different operating modes, speeds and directions on a single programmable chip. An Integrated Circuit (IC) known as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was used to be configured by coding in VHSIC Hardware Descriptive Language (VHDL; VHSIC - Very High Speed Integrated Circuit), which is a general-purpose hardware descriptive language. This embedded system enables the user to control the motor from a Personal Computer (PC) Host, by establishing communication between the PC Host and the FPGA via RS-232. As a whole, this motion control system provides an easily controlled platform with low system complexity that would be suitable for future applications such as robot navigation, camera controlling or sewing machine controlling