| First Prototype The first prototype attempted to capture the input speed waveform of the motor. For this, we used a stepper motor coupled to another stepper motor. A mounting plate was created to make the assembly rigid. The measured motor was connected to the microcontroller and the results were fed to a computer using Matlab. A waveform was generated which represented the initial electrical input generally resembling a perfect sign-wave. The experimental setup can be seen below.  
Computer Interface Stepper Motor and Controller Card  Graphical User Interface |
| Second Prototype The second prototype was an effort to characterize the linear velocity stability. A friction reduced linear slide was used to move a mirror type surface back and forth in a linear motion. An HP interferometer gave precise location and velocity data. It is hoped that the setup would produce results for any size stepper motor. The mounting plate used in prototype one was modified to become more adaptable. A specific hole-pattern was created to accommodate this effort.  Second prototype setup  Velocity data versus time |