Microstepping

Microstepping lets steppers work much faster and more reliably, not to mention smoother ride :P

The TCA3727 (looks like it will be obsolete shortly) has the following nice diagram explaining microstepping currents.

Stepping table is as follows:

#define I10 _BV(STEPPER_I10_PIN)
#define I11 _BV(STEPPER_I11_PIN)
#define PH1 _BV(STEPPER_PH1_PIN)
#define I20 _BV(STEPPER_I20_PIN)
#define I21 _BV(STEPPER_I21_PIN)
#define PH2 _BV(STEPPER_PH2_PIN)

static const u08
stepper_steps[] PROGMEM =  {
 I10 | I11 |   0 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 0
   0 | I11 | PH1 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 1
 I10 |   0 | PH1 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 2
   0 |   0 | PH1 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 3
   0 |   0 | PH1 | PH2 | I20 |   0,  // 4
   0 |   0 | PH1 | PH2 |   0 | I21,  // 5
   0 |   0 | PH1 | PH2 | I20 | I21,  // 6
   0 |   0 | PH1 |   0 |   0 | I21,  // 7
   0 |   0 | PH1 |   0 | I20 |   0,  // 8
   0 |   0 | PH1 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 9
 I10 |   0 | PH1 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 10
   0 | I11 | PH1 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 11
 I10 | I11 | PH1 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 12
   0 | I11 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 13
 I10 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 14
   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0,  // 15
   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 | I20 |   0,  // 16
   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 | I21,  // 17
   0 |   0 |   0 |   0 | I20 | I21,  // 18
   0 |   0 |   0 | PH2 |   0 | I21,  // 19
   0 |   0 |   0 | PH2 | I20 |   0,  // 20
   0 |   0 |   0 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 21
 I10 |   0 |   0 | PH2 |   0 |   0,  // 22
   0 | I11 |   0 | PH2 |   0 |   0  // 23
};

#undef I10
#undef I11
#undef PH1
#undef I20
#undef I21
#undef PH2

When doing it step-by-step, some steps seem to be less "powerful" than others. It doesn't run _very_ smoothly on higher speeds. Perhaps some tweaking with step timings is neede in order to achieve really smooth operation.

Farewell

I managed to finish firmware yesterday. Good!

Yesterday afternoon I had a long farewell lunch at the airport with our guest from France. He is a rather smart guy, who had been staying at the Institute for a month trying frantically to use our main product for real and succeeeding in that. Despite all the problems; including starting working week later than planned. I always felt that we were not treating him nicely because we had been busy doing other thing and not going out for lunch or giving him too little support using our products. However, much to my surprise he said that compared to his previous stay in German (three months) we were very friendly and supportive. In fact, he invited me to visit France and I promised to do so.

Beforehand I was very reluctant to spend some extra time, but now it looks like time well spent. Time spent with our clients is rarely time wasted.

Today I still have my hands at the same firmware I had on Monday. The spec is four pages long and I made an improvement today, which will be implemented tomorrow - FIVE DAYS LATER.

It is time to improve my spec-writing skills and reap the benefits of thinking before diving straight into the code.