RpiMotorLib, A Raspberry pi python motor library

Table of contents

• Table of contents
• Overview
• Installation
• Information script
• Files
• Dependencies
• Components
• Notes

Overview

• Name: RpiMotorLib
• Title: Raspberry pi motor library.
• Description:

A python 3 library for various motors and servos to connect to a raspberry pi. There are three categories in library. Stepper motors , Dc Motors and Servos. The end user can import this library into their projects and then control the components with short snippets of code. The library is modular so user can just import/use the section they need.

• Main Author: Gavin Lyons
• URL: https://github.com/gavinlyonsrepo/RpiMotorLib
• History: CHANGELOG.md is at repository in documentation.
• Contributers: Erez Levanon
• Copyright: Copyright (C) 2018 Gavin Lyons. See LICENSE.md in documentation.
• Contact: github or [email protected].

Installation

The library was initially tested and built on a raspberry pi 3 model b, Raspbian jessie 8.0 and python 3.4.2. It was also tested for Python (3.5.3) and Raspbian stretch 9.9 . Also for Windows 10 users See issue number 2 at project Github URL.

Make sure that python 3.5.3 and pip have been installed on your machine, then:

sudo pip install rpimotorlib

Information script

A small script is installed to display version and help information. Run the information script by typing. RpiMotorScriptLib.py -[options]

Option	Description
-h	Print help information and exit
-v	Print version information and exit

Files

rpiMotorLib files are listed below:

File Path	Description
RPiMotorLib/RpiMotorLib.py	stepper motor python library file
RPiMotorLib/rpiservolib.py	servo python library RPi.GPIO PWM file
RPiMotorLib/rpi_pservo_lib.py	servo python library pigpio PWM file
RPiMotorLib/rpi_dc_lib.py	DC python motor library file
RPiMotorLib/RpiMotorScriptLib.py	small script with meta data about library
documentation/*.md	14 markdown library documentation files
test/*Test.py	12 python test files
/usr/share/doc/RpiMotorLib/README.md	This help file

Dependencies

1. RPi.GPIO 0.6.3 Rpi.GPIO pypi page

A module to control Raspberry Pi GPIO channels. This package provides a class to control the GPIO on a Raspberry Pi. This should already be installed on most Raspberry Pis.

2. pigpio 1.60-1 Homepage

This Dependency is Optional, it is currently only used in one of the two servo control options. pigpio is a library for the Raspberry which allows control of the General Purpose Input Outputs (GPIO).

Components

Şeparate help files are in documentation folder to learn how to use library. Click on the relevant URL in help file section. Test files used during development are in test folder of repo. Example snippets are also available in some of the documentation files.

1. Stepper motors

Motor	Motor controller	Help File URL link
Unipolar 28BYJ-48	ULN2003 driver module	URL
Bipolar Nema 11	L298N H-Bridge controller module	URL
Bipolar Nema 11	A4988 Stepper Driver Carrier	URL
Bipolar Nema 11	DRV8825 Stepper Driver Carrier	URL
Bipolar Nema 11	A3967 Stepper Driver aka "easy driver v4.4"	URL
Bipolar Nema 11	TB6612FNG Dual Driver Carrier	URL

2. DC motors

Motor	Motor controller	Help File URL link
DC Brushed Motor	L298N Motor controller module.	URL
DC Brushed Motor	A transistor.	URL
DC Brushed Motor	L9110S Motor controller module.	URL
DC Brushed Motor	DV8833 Motor controller module.	URL
DC Brushed Motor	TB6612FNG Dual Motor Driver Carrier	URL

3. Servos

Servo	Link
Servo software timing	RPi.GPIO module PWM
Servo hardware timing	pigpio library module PWM

Notes

There are two different options for controlling the servo. When using Rpi_GPIO option you may notice twitching at certain delays and stepsizes. This is the result of the implementation of the RPIO PWM software timing. If the application requires precise control the user can pick the pigpio library which uses hardware based timing. The disadvantage being they must install another dependency.

NEMA 11 bipolar stepper motors where used in tests but most other bipolar 4-pin motors of similar type should work in place of Nema 11.

There is a libre office spreadsheet file in the Documentation folder called Matrix, which shows which class is used for which controller, or consult the docstring of the appropriate python file.