Please help: stepper motor, pulse and distance traveled along a rod Question

Thread Starter


Joined Aug 28, 2009
I am a newbie with electronic design, stepper motors and drivers.

I am using a Step Motor (1.8deg/step) and a Gecko 203V Driver.
The G203V is pulse width modulated and one microstep is the equivalent of a pulse. If you send it 2kHz it will go one revolution per second at 10uSteps on a 200 step motor.

I have the motor on a 1:2 gear ratio and this is then hooked up to a threaded rod with 1/13" pitch.

1. How would I calculate, from the pulse (duty cycle and frequency) using the stepper motor and the gear ratio and the pitch how far something has travelled along the rod?

2. Is there an equation I can use to determine distance travelled from the duty cycle and frequency?

I am a little confused because every pulse/step I run the motor travels 1.8 degree's but this is reduced by 2 for the gear ratio and then the pitch on the rod will change this calculation.

Bottom line I want the user
(in Labview) to input a frequency and duty cycle for the motor and this will also output the distance that it will travel with some allotted time.

So for example if I output a frequency of 2Hz at some duty cycle for 1 min it will travel "? in" along the threaded rod.

Can someone please clarify this for me. Thank you.