uStepper improves performance stepper motors, used in items such as inkjet printers – for moving the ink cartridge back and forth over the paper.
Stepper motors can be a cheaper alternative to servo motors, but the drawback of steppers is not being able to tell if they are moving to the position they were told to move to.
If a person tries to block the path of the ink-jet head, while the printer is printing, it will not recover from this.
The same happens in most of the applications using stepper motors, including 3D printers where the type of steppers, which uStepper is designed for, are primarily used.
uStepper removes this drawback by continuously monitoring where it is, and where it should be.
uStepper can compensate if anything goes wrong. It operates with feedback.
uStepper has the ability to drive the stepper motor, monitor position and it has an onboard programmable microcontroller with a wide range of available inputs and outputs.
All this is packed into a small printed circuit board that fits on the back of small stepper motors.
To make uStepper accessible for both professionals, hobbyists and students, it is compatible with the Arduino IDE. Here, it can easily be programmed to do exactly what the user needs it to do.
The company behind uStepper, ON Development, was started in August 2015 by two electronic engineering graduates from Aalborg University, Denmark.
During that time, they continuously developed the code and applications for the product.
With the market for electronic components changing, they decided to launch a new line of uStepper boards, financed by the use of crowdfunding.
The new line will offer a uStepper board with improved performance on all parameters, a cheaper lite version and potentially a large and powerful version.