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USB Stepper Motor Card
Designed by OpenCockpits
Reviewed by Jack Whaley-Baldwin
February 2012

Introduction
Stepper motors are commonly used in industry for very precise applications, as they can be very carefully controlled via a digital circuit (often through a computer). The precise nature of a stepper motor means that they are often used in home desktop printers, which require very precise movements in order to produce a high-quality print. As a result, stepper motors are often sought after within the flight simulator hardware industry, as they are excellent candidates for controlling high-quality instruments, such as airspeed indicators, altimeters, vertical speed indicators, and much more.

  In fact, almost all commercial FS instrument manufacturers (such as Flight Illusion, Seagull Simulations, etc) use stepper motors. The only exception is SimKits, who chose to use servo motors. Whilst servo motors are easy to use and quite reliable, they are often much more noisy and less precise than stepper motors; hence why most companies favour the former.

Unfortunately, with the many advantages of stepper motors there will always at least one disadvantage. Generally, suitable stepper motors are much harder to source than DC motors or servo motors, which can easily be purchased in local hobby shops and on the internet.

Whilst stepper motors can be purchased online, the sheer variety and differentiating specifications of the motors makes it difficult for beginners to find the right motor for their application. Another slight disadvantage to using stepper motors is that they are more difficult to understand than other types of motors. Don't expect to just connect a simple power supply and see the motor spin around!

A quick Google search will indicate that stepper motors are “brushless DC electric motors” than can be controlled via “open-loop” or “closed-loop”.
 But what does all this mean? It is difficult to find a simple explanation on the web as to how stepper motors actually function and operate. I will try and simplify that here.

Although it is a rather abstract way of picturing how stepper motor works, if one can imagine an everyday shopper; a bargain hunter on the look out for deals and low priced goods.

This shopper will move from one supermarket to another to catch the best deals whenever they are on (for the purposes of this explanation assume that only one supermarket has one offer on at once). Each time the shopper moves from one supermarket to another, we call this a “step”.


In this first picture, our shopper is attracted towards “Save-a-lot”, as they have the lowest prices...

Now that “save-a-lot” have stopped their deals, our shopper is no longer attracted to them and moves onto “Tesco”, who have now opened their deals to the public...

The shopper makes another step...

Finally, “Save-a-lot” re-open their offers and our shopper goes back to them. He has made on complete revolution now, having “stepped” 4 times. The red arc shows his path...

As one can see, the red arc the shopper has made has formed a circle. Likewise, as a stepper motor turns through 360 degrees, it makes a circle.

This is why this rather abstract way of explaining how a stepper motor works is actually quite relevant. The following animated picture, available on Wikipedia, shows how a stepper motor turns. The similarities with the above example are clear; the shoppers have been replaced with toothed electromagnets, and the shopper himself has been replaced by a gear (which, for our purposes, would probably be connected to some sort of airspeed indicator or other instrument).

The principle is exactly the same. The toothed electromagnets on the outside are energized, and thus the central gear is attracted to them one by one as it makes a complete revolution, turning in what is called “steps”. Of course, there are very few stepper motors that only have 4 steps per turn; think how useless that would be for designing a flight simulator instrument! As a result, there are many different types available, each with differing voltages, current ratings, steps per turn, and even with different polarity (unipolar and bipolar), the latter of which is discussed in the next paragraph.

Of all the stepper motors available on the market, the one thing you can be sure of is the polarity. Unlike things like number of steps per turn or voltage/current ratings, a stepper motor can only be Unipolar or Bipolar. Unipolar stepper motors are rather simple to operate; they work exactly like the example above and there are only a few deviations from this rule.

Bipolar stepper motors are much more complex to operate, but will still offer a similar end result. Bipolar stepper motors often have what is called a “H-bridge” arrangement, which allows a specific voltage to be “applied across a load in either direction” (see Wikipedia, “HBridge”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-bridge ).

Further delving into the technicalities of each motor type would deviate somewhat from the intentions of this review, and so I have kept such explanations contained within the above paragraph only. Needless to say, one should be familiar with the “pros and cons” of each motor type. Generally:
    – Unipolar motors are simpler, cheaper, and are used for low-speed, low-torque applications (ie perfect for most flight simulator instruments)
    – Bipolar motors are more complex and more expensive, but offer much more torque and speed than Unipolar motors (perhaps suitable
      for more demanding FS applications, perhaps a helicopter rotor gauge)

The Opencockpits USB Stepper motor card has been designed specifically for use with flight simulation, and allows users to apply the benefits of stepper motors to everyday cockpit building applications, such as an airspeed indicator or altimeter. Thankfully, the Opencockpits card is quite flexible, and supports both Unipolar and Bipolar stepper types, with numerous current and voltage ratings (see product specification below).

Through the use of the USBStepper motors card, cockpit-builders can design their own aircraft gauges and interface them to flight simulator 2004, flight simulator X, or even X-Plane.

Product Specifics and Information
The Opencockpits USBStepper motors card can be purchased through the Opencockpits shop for 40 Euros + VAT and Shipping (where applicable). This price means that this card is one of Opencockpits' more expensive offerings, with most of their other products retailing around 25-30 Euros +VAT & Shipping. Like all Opencockpits cards, a USB cable is included as standard; a nice gesture these days, as most companies require you to purchase one externally!

Alternatively, the card can be purchased from Aviation Megastore http://www.aviationmegastore.com Personally I prefer to buy direct through
Opencockpits, as their postage prices tend to be more reasonable than Aviation Megastore's.

To my knowledge, Aviation Megastore is the only official retailer for Opencockpits products, so if you don't want to buy from Opencockpits directly, you don't really have much more choice!

  The USBStepper motors card boasts the following specifications:

    – Able to control up to 3 stepper motors, with support for 3 optical sensors
      (see later in review).
    – Supports 3 analogue inputs (potentiometers), which can be used for position
      feedback.
    – Connects directly through the USB port of a PC; no need to install any drivers.
    – An external power supply (up to 36V and 1A) can be connected if required
      (not included).
   – Full support for both Unipolar and Bipolar stepper motors.
   – Completely interfaced to FS2004/FSX/X-Plane through the SIOC
      (freeware) interfacing system.
The main advantage, of course, is being able to perform all of the complex operations listed in the introduction through a simple USB port!

Preparation and Installation
Like most hardware products, a little preparation is required before you are able to start using them.

The first and most obvious step with an Opencockpits product is to first check if the latest version of SIOC has been installed. At the time of writing this review, I can confirm version 3.7B1 works perfectly, although I am aware that there has been a very recent release of SIOC which boasts a few advantages over its predecessors. SIOC is developed by Opencockpits and is completely free of charge (to download, see the link at the “downloads” section at the end of the review).

Another step, which may seem even more obvious, is to actually locate a working stepper motor. The most common source of stepper motors for FS related projects is usually from old, unwanted printers. In fact, one of the stepper motors I used in this review was sourced from an old printer of mine, and it works perfectly. If necessary, a stepper motor can be purchased online or perhaps at a local electronics shop.

It is also necessary to download “IOStepper.exe”. This is yet another freeware program developed by Opencockpits exclusively for the USB Stepper motors card. This program works alongside SIOC (providing a bridge between the stepper motor and SIOC), and is very easy to use.

After securing the basics, I proceeded to plug the USBStepper motors card plugged in.

Further adding to the reliable impression I have received from Opencockpits from previous reviews, the card was recognized and installed automatically; a true “Plug'n'Play” unit.

Once installed, the card should have a device entry visible in the main SIOC window (open the SIOC executable file and look in the main device window).

[NOTE: In the above photograph, you can see other devices listed. This is because I own an extensive amount of Opencockpits products, and as such they also appear in the device window!]

I also prepared a simple 5V power supply to plug into the USBStepper motors card. As previous mentioned, this is only necessary if you need external power for your stepper motor.

Whilst my stepper motors didn't require external power (the power through the USB port was enough), my computer has a high amount of USB connections; and thus I didn't want to experience a “power droop” during operation. It was also a good test of how easy using a power supply with the card was. Unfortunately, I had to purchase my own plug to connect to the power supply pins. In the past, I had been supplied this pin by Opencockpits within the card's packaging.

After checking everything was ready, it was time to install my stepper motor...

Installing a stepper motor into the USBStepper motors card
Depending on the type of stepper motor (Unipolar or Bipolar), each will have a different wire configuration. This means that some stepper motors can have up to eight wires; some only have four. As such, it is important to differentiate between different types so that one knows how to connect it to the USBStepper motors card.

Although most stepper motors have some sort of label identifying their type and wire configuration, some (like mine) do not, and thus I had to refer to Opencockpits' documentation to find out how the function of each wire on my stepper motor.

In a nutshell, the documentation recommends the use of a multimeter to measure resistance between the coils on the stepper motor. The exact instructions can be found in the Opencockpits manual (see link at end of review). Personally, I do not think the manual explains this well enough; however there are plenty of tutorials on the internet detailing how to find wire functions of a stepper motor.

NOTE: The above method will only find out the function of each wire. If you are unsure if your motor is Unipolar or Bipolar, then the following rules usually apply:
    – A motor with 5 wires is Unipolar
    – A motor with 6 wires is Unipolar (same as above but has 2 common wires of the same colour)
    – A motor with 4 wires is Bipolar

Through the application of all of the above instructions, it is possible to find not only the motor type, but also identify each individual wire and its function (ie identify each “coil” and find the “common” wires). The wires of a stepper motor are often referred to as “windings”; so don't be thrown if you see this term.

Once each wire has been identified, it is possible to connect the motor to the USB Stepper motors card. This is quite a tricky process, as unless you have some sort of plug that fits the exact pin configuration of the USB Stepper motors card, you will have to hand-solder each wire into place; with costly consequences if it goes wrong.

The following diagram supplied by Opencockpits (extracted from the manual) shows how Stepper motors should be connected to the USB Stepper motors card:

[NOTE: The motors are the right-hand side are the stepper motors. The connections along the top show how potentiometers (variable resistors) and optical sensors should be connected. These are explained in more detail later.]

On the above diagram, three separate stepper motor connector blocks can be seen on the right hand side. The diagram shows how to connect a Unipolar 5-cable, Unipolar 6-cable, and a Bipolar stepper motor. It should be noted that the motors don't HAVE to be connected to the same slots as the above diagram; ie a Bipolar motor can still be plugged into the top slot, provided the wires are connected correctly. The actual wires, however, are the same for each connector block; ie a Unipolar 5-cable motor will ALWAYS have its “common” wire attached to the top pin.

Whilst the diagrams in the manual are relatively clear, I do not think that the textual explanations supplied within the manual are good enough. It should be noted however, that Opencockpits are a Spanish organization; and thus complicated explanations may not be as well explained as possible.

If you have followed the instructions correctly, you should end up with something like this:

[NOTE: In the above photograph, you will see that an optical sensor has been installed on one of the terminal blocks at the top of the card. This is NOT a stepper motor. My (Unipolar) Stepper motor is plugged into slot three; the 5-pin slot at the top right of the card. The 5 pin slot halfway up the right-hand side is in use with another stepper motor.]

I have also mounted my card onto a wooden board. This is because the underside of the USBStepper motors card has exposed metal solder joints, and it is a good idea to make sure these are “protected” and not touching another conductor. Furthermore, as with all circuit boards, you should NEVER rub it against any sort of carpet-like material, hence why wood is a good candidate.

Once the stepper motor has been installed, it is time to install the optical sensor.

Installing an Optical Sensor
[NOTE: An optical sensor MUST be installed in order for a stepper motor to function correctly. I was under the (correct) impression that stepper motors could be operated “open-loop” (without feedback); they can be, but the USB Stepper motors card does not support this feature. The manual does not explain this particular fact well enough!!!]

The USB Stepper motors card requires the installation of an Optical sensor for position feedback. If necessary, a potentiometer can be used for feedback; however optical sensors are much better suited to stepper motors than potentiometers are.

Optical sensors for stepper motors function in the exact same way as a “finish line” at the Olympic games, or at a horse race. They simply tell the USB Stepper motors card how long it took for the needle to do a “complete lap” of the stepper motor at a specific speed (more specifically, it tells the card “how many steps per turn” the stepper motor has).

The Opencockpits manual states that the RS 305-560 optical sensor should be used. This optical sensor can easily be purchased online or at a local shop; it is a fairly well-known optical sensor.

The optical sensors communicates with the stepper motors card through voltage information. A beam of light streams between two points on the sensor. When this beam is uninterrupted (ie it streams from “A” to “B” without hitting any obstacles), a 5V signal is produced and sent to the USB Stepper motors card. When this beam is interrupted (ie “cut” with the needle of a gauge), then a 0V signal is sent to the card, and the software is told that the gauge's needle has hit the zero mark.

As a result, optical sensors are usually installed so that the beam is cut when the needle reaches its “zero point” (for example, 0 knots on an airspeed indicator). This makes calibration much easier within software, as you can literally state that “zero = zero”.

Installing an optical sensor is simple in principle but tricky in nature. As long as one remembers to exactly align the sensor with the “zero-point”, and ensures that the needle cuts the light beam perfectly, there should be no nasty surprises when operating a stepper motor.

Potentiometer Supporting
[NOTE: This section is not necessary if you have installed an optical sensor (see above)] Potentiometers, or variable resistors, are often used within cockpit building to provide feedback for instruments and auto-throttle systems. This is because, as the potentiometer rotates, the resistance increases (or vice-versa), and so an interfacing program (in our case SIOC) can tell the position of a device by cross-checking the resistance value with a usermade script.

For example, imagine we have built an airspeed indicator. We have designed a SIOC script that controls the airspeed indicator, and we ask SIOC to use a potentiometer for position feedback, which can be explained thus:

USER: “SIOC, when the Potentiometer has a resistance of 10K Ohms, we're at 200 Knots”
SIOC: “10K Ohms detected; therefore 200 knots. FSX is only showing 190 Knots. Adjusting motor accordingly...”

The above “example” sees SIOC being given a value of 10K Ohms (which equals 200 Knots on the ASI's faceplate), and then reading the FSX knots value. SIOC realizes that FSX is only showing 190 knots, and so it adjusts the stepper motor accordingly.

Potentiometers can be used as an analogue-alternative to an optical sensor. As a result, Opencockpits have thoughtfully provided three potentiometer ports on the USBStepper motors card to accompany the three available stepper motor slots.

It should be noted however, that the Opencockpits manual does not recommend the use of Potentiometers (and, in fact, omits them entirely from the whole manual). Personally; I am in two minds regarding the matter. Whilst it is definitely true that optical-sensors are much more precise, they are extraordinarily delicate and difficult to set up (as previously explained). Potentiometers are much simpler to operate and understand, and, in fact, are actually more suitable than optical sensors for some applications; primarily within an autothrottle system.

It is impressive to see that Opencockpits are providing support for Potentiometers; proving that the USB Stepper motors card is designed to be as flexible as possible.

NOTE: Whilst there has still been no testing software released, the release of SIOC version 4.0 has allowed users to test Potentiometer readings without having to use a SIOC script. This can be done by using the "SIOC Monitor" option available in the main SIOC window.

Testing and Operating the USB Stepper Motors Card
General tests and operation of the USB Stepper motors card can be achieved through the use of two programs (previous mentioned). These are:
    – SIOC (v3.71B1+)
    – IOStepper.exe (v0.2)

Both of these programs can be downloaded free of charge from Opencockpits' website. They are very easy to install; a simple double click on the executable file will start the installation process.

Before beginning the process of actually getting the stepper motor to move, a SIOC script should be constructed first. This simple script provides the bridge between stepper motor and the IOStepper.exe testing program. Thankfully, creating such a script for the USB Stepper motors is VERY easy, especially when compared to other Opencockpits products, such as the displays card or USB LCD Card.

SIOC scripts should be written in .txt (text file) format, before being compiled by the SIOC program to use with the card. Microsoft notepad is the most appropriate application for this task; but, if really necessary, you can use your own word processor that produces .txt files. Only one line of code is needed within the SIOC script, as detailed in the following annotated diagram. The annotations explain the purpose for each “snippet” of code.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Please note, the above diagram is very detailed and “over the top”. It would be perfectly simple just to copy the above line of code into notepad and save it. The above diagram is designed to be a reference should you wish to explore SIOC further.

To compile a .txt file, click the “config” button on the SIOC main window interface. The configuration window should then appear. In the config window, click “file”, “import”, and then locate and import your .txt file. Once compiled, a large “OK” should be visible, and you can save the SIOC file (now called .ssi) into the SIOC folder, or wherever you like should you wish to keep a backup copy.

The compiled SIOC file must be saved in the main SIOC folder to be used, and must be referenced in the “SIOC.ini” file. The “SIOC.ini” file is found in the main SIOC folder, and when opened up in notepad, will contain many lines of code that configures the SIOC program. Ensure that the “Configuration_File=X” is set to the name of your compiled SIOC file (where the X represents the name of this file, following by the suffix “.ssi”; eg, “cheese.ssi”).

Please note, the information given here on how to use SIOC and how to compile a file is rather brief, since this is a review and not a SIOC guide.

For more information on SIOC, I suggest you head over to Nico Kaan's website. Nico Kaan is often referred to as the “SIOC guru” in the FS community, and his website contains (literally) thousands of SIOC guides and examples for you to use. A link to Nico's site is provided at the end.

Once a suitable SIOC file has been compiled and saved, simply start SIOC and then start the “IOStepper.exe” application. The stepper motor should then turn twice through 360 degrees (ie cutting the optical sensor twice), and then stop. Once this procedure is complete, SIOC will then know how many “steps per turn” that specific motor has. Please note; SIOC saves no such information, and as a result, this procedure must be repeated EVERY TIME SIOC is started, should you wish to use your stepper motor.

Sending Information to the Stepper Motor
Interestingly, Opencockpits have designed the USB Stepper motors card to receive information in terms of degrees to turn, rather than in terms of number of steps.

Phrased differently, if you wish to turn your stepper motor exactly half way, you must send to it a value of “180” (180 degrees, have a full rotation). For example:
A stepper motor has exactly 100 steps per turn. The user sends the stepper motor a value of “180”, and the stepper motor moves 50 steps, or exactly halfway. If sent a value of 360 or 0, it will return to the “0” point by the shortest possible path.

Personally, I am very pleased with this approach to controlling the USBStepper motors card. It is very simple to understand, and makes interfacing to FSX/FS2004/X-Plane so much easier. The following script is a simple example of how to interface an airspeed indicator (ASI) using the USBStepper Motors Card. The first picture is a digital representation of our ASI gauge. It turns through 240 knots in 340 degrees.


The following things can be noted in the above script:
“Var 2, name IAS, Link FSUIPC_IN, Offset $02BC, Length 4” - This line defines the indicator airspeed FSUIPC offset for FSX. The offset is code 02BC (which must be preceded be the symbol “$” in SIOC), and it has a Length of 4. All such information can be found within the FSUIPC SDK documentation. The command “FSUIPC_IN” is used, as we are READING the offset (the command “OUT” is used when WRITING to the offset).

“L0 = DIV &IAS 128” - This line of code divides the airspeed offset by 128. This is because the IAS offset is multiplied by 128 by FSUIPC when it reaches SIOC, so we must do the opposite to get a correct value (or else our IAS value will be 128 times too high!).

“&Airspeed = L0 * 1.417” - This converts between knots and degrees. Since 340/240 = 1.4166666 (1.417), we multiply the FSX IAS Knots value to 1.417, and send this mutiplied value to the stepper motor. For example, at 100 knots, the stepper motor will move 141 degrees; approximately between a quarter-way and half-way of full rotation.

All other script components, such as the “curly brackets”, are part of the core SIOC understanding, which is explained perfectly on Nico Kaan's website (see link at end).

This script will successfully interface an airspeed indicator to FS2004/FSX using the USB Stepper motors card. Of course, the exact same logic can be adapter and applied to other gauges, such as a VSI gauge or fuel gauge. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate how just 5 lines of code can produce a perfectly working instrument; at a fraction of the cost of a “pre-built” unit.

Reliability and Problems
Generally, it must be said that the USB Stepper motors card performs outstandingly without issue. There are, however, a few occasional “glitches” (as I'm sure they're just small unintentional problems) that can occur. Firstly, the optical sensor feature on the card doesn't seem to always work perfectly. I had a perfectly working opto-needle configuration working with the USB Stepper motors card, and then suddenly, the card would no longer recognize the opto-sensor's inputs. After testing the sensor with a multimeter, I quickly learned that it was the card at fault and not the sensor.

Having no idea what had happened, I simply “widened” the needle that cut the opto-sensor's beam. To my amazement, this fixed the issue. It seems a “wider” needle (ie the opto-sensor reads 0 Volts for a longer period, as the needle is over the beam more often) fixed the issue. This problem has never since re-occurred, and I'm not sure what caused this apparent lack in “needle tolerance”!

Although not so much a problem, the PIC chipset(s) on the card seem to get very hot when in operation for awhile, to the point where they are severely uncomfortable to touch (around 50-60 degrees). Unfortunately, this is unavoidable; most products which operate at high current for long periods of time will suffer from some sort of heat problem at some point. It is, however, possible to install a home-made heat-sink solution if absolutely necessary. Personally however, I feel that letting the card “have a rest” and restricting unnecessary use is the best cure!

Documentation
As with all Opencockpits products, the USB Stepper motors card is supplied with a PDF manual, which can be freely downloaded from Opencockpits' product page.

Unfortunately, the manual isn't as impressive as the product itself, which is a shame. The manual seems to be missing specific key components (such as how to install and use and opto-sensor), which are quite frustrating; especially when dealing with such a complex product.

However, if you are rather confident with using such delicate circuitry, then the manual perfectly suffices as a guide to help course you through the steps needed to set up the card.

Even for less confident people, the manual seems to cover the absolute basics; but that is all – I feel that the manual could do with a bit of a re-work.

Incorporating the USB Stepper Motors Card into Cockpit-Projects
As a means of being able to demonstrate the USB Stepper motor card's ability, Opencockpits kindly supplied me with a Boeing 737 Chronograph “kit”, which I planned to use alongside the USB Stepper motors card.

Since I am building a Boeing 767 cockpit, you may be thinking, “why use a 737 chronograph”? The differences between the two are very subtle; and they function in the exact same way. Furthermore, 767 chronographs are rare and difficult to obtain; hence why I am happy to use a 737 chronograph.

The following digital diagram outline the fundamentals of the Boeing 737/767 chronograph.

Please note, some buttons, like “SET” and the “+/-” buttons have been excluded. This is because, not only do they have a different function in the Boeing 767, but they are also not simulated in any FS2004/FSX simulations.

Although it took many months and weeks of painstaking work, my chronograph was finally completed around December 20th 2011. This is what it looks like:


My chronograph is interfaced entirely using the Opencockpits USBStepper motors card; with the Opencockpits master card and 7-segment displays cards handling the buttons and displays, respectively.

The USBStepper motors card has been a fantastic aid in achieving my chronograph goal. It flawlessly turns my chronograph needle every time, without fail.

If you'd like to learn more about the operation of my chronograph and the USBStepper motors card, I have recorded a detailed video which covers all the in-depth technical details.

If you have any questions regarding my chronograph project (or regarding this review), please do not hesitate to contact me.

Conclusion
The Opencockpits USB Stepper motors card provides cockpit builders with a fresh approach to simple stepper motor operation. Although considerably tricky to initally set up, the card performs flawlessly and delivers cockpit builders with outstanding results every time.

The card is perfect for almost any instrumental application, and the inclusion of 3 analogue input slots proves that Opencockpits are supporting various interfacing methods; useful for those who aren't comfortable with optical sensors.

The card is very reliable and is exactly what the FS market needs. The only negative aspect to the product is the documentation and, perhaps, the very occasional opto-sensor issues that I experienced.

A very well done to Manuel and the Opencockpits team!

Verdict

Pros:
    – Very reliable
    – Easy to script and program for
    – Extremely useful; provides an excellent foundation for building home-made instruments
    – Support for both optical sensor and potentiometer sensor types
    – Compatible with many different types and specifications of Stepper motor
Cons:
    – Occasional heat problems (50-60 degrees) when in operation for long periods of time
    – Although not a “fault”, the card only has three motor slots available
    – Opto-sensor issue (needle wasn't detected); however this particular issue only happenedONCE

The USBStepper motors card is a credit to the Opencockpits team and perfect for use by anyone worldwide; professional cockpit builder or not.
My score? A Mutleys Hangar score of 8/10

Jack Whaley-Baldwin
Review machine Spec:
Core i7 920 OC @ 3.8 Ghz | 6Gb Tri-Channel DDR3 Ram |GTX285 Graphics |Windows 7 64bit Home Premium