I tried my hand at using a beefier stepper, one that draws 2A. Using a driver rated for 1.2A to drive this motor was a bad idea.
At first I thought that the driver was not working correctly. However, upon adding a makeshift heatsink, the stepper made one complete revolution... and then the driver resumed shutting off after that. I guess that's progress?
I have ordered a different stepper that has less torque and that draws less current. Hopefully the torque is sufficient to move the commutator. That is an empirical question. If not, I might have to get a beefier driver.
Central optic fiber movement detection:
I will be using a pair of hall sensors to detect the movement of a magnet attached to the mobile component of the central optic commutator. The last time I tried this, the readings contained a lot of noise, but large changes in magnetic field were detected reliably. I'm either going to have to get a more precise/sensitive hall sensor or I'm going to have to smooth the data coming into the arduino with some code.
To be continued.
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