Step Stick
1. Each stepper motor is
different. There are a ton of
tutorials out there to figure out
how to connect yours to a Step
Stick, so wire your stepper motor
appropriately.
2. I used a wall wart power
adapter to provide motor power
to the Step Stick. I basically
spliced the wires from a wall wart
into a female pin header
connector. You could solder
directly or use jumpers. It is better
to give the Step Stick its own
power and NOT draw it from the
activity board. While you may get
that configuration working, I
found it to be a little buggy.
Note: If you are not
comfortable or knowledgeable
about splicing wires to anything,
seek help from someone who does!
3. Wire the VCC for the board power for the Step
Stick to a 5V supply from the activity board. Again, you
could draw the power for the board from the motor
power but I found that buggy, as well.
4. Wire pin 0 from the activity board to the step pin
on the Step Stick.
5. The Step Stick also requires a few jumpers. You
have to at least jumper reset and sleep, or it will not work
at all. If you want any form of
micro-stepping, then you would
have to jumper MS1, 2, and 3 to
HIGH.
Audio
1. I used a 1/8” to 1/4” cable
to connect the audio output from
the activity board to the guitar
amplifier.
2. I put my animal scream on a
mini-SD and plugged it into the SD
reader on the activity board.
So that’s it — an overly
complicated Monster in a Box
project. It’s probably more of an
exercise in using the activity board
to control a myriad of effects than it
is on how to most efficiently make
a Halloween prop. If you are
reading this magazine though, I’m
guessing you appreciate overly complicated projects just
like me. NV
September 2014 65
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Here's an even
closer look at
the Propeller
activity board.
To see the Monster in a Box in action, go to www.youtube
.com/watch?v=2pkMfcFDVvs&list=UUTCJzOsWrxeE4d_-BdDvh
DA&feature=share&index= 3.
To see any of my other projects, check out my website at
www.backyardworkshop.com.