Moving the paddle with Arduino code
The first step in making the entire system work is to test the motors. Fortunately, the GitHub site, https://github.com/JJulio/AHRobot, has the code that can make this happen. Download and unzip the code. Look in the AHRobot-master/Arduino/Utils/AHR_Motor_Test
directory for the AHR_Motor_Test.ino
program file. This file provides a simple test program to move the three stepper motors, first the x-axis stepper motor that moves the paddle back and forth across the table and then the y-axis stepper motors, the two motors which move the paddle forward and backward.
Note
If you are unfamiliar with how to develop and upload code for Arduino Mega, go to the https://www.arduino.cc/ website. It has a detailed set of instructions and an open source IDE for Arduino.
Run the program and open the Serial Port. You will see the following as the paddle moves:
If everything is connected correctly, the paddle should first move across the table, then move forward. If it does...