[cmjb13]

Hello,

Here's what I have:
Price is right IGT slot machine wheel connected to....
K179 Stepper driver (which controls speed and direction of wheel)
Light control board (controls chasing light speed)
VLT130 AC/DC power supply
TDK-Lambda DSP30-12 power supply

Video here

As you can see by the video, the wheel spins albeit slowly. When I manually increase the stepping speed on the K179, the spinning stops and just freezes. My goal is to have this spin fast and then slow down and stop on a random number which I believe I will need some sort of a trigger for.

Goals:
Spin faster without freezing
Have the unit connected to a button when pressed would slow down and stop randomly

Is there any arduino hardware (or similar) I can use to replace the existing hardware that would accomplish this? I'm not sure the current hardware will accomplish what I'm looking to achieve.

Any help is appreciated

[James Newton]

That is a 12 volt supply?

With stepper motors, more speed = higher voltage. As I understand it, the K179 will go up to 36 volts? I'd recommend trying a 24 volt supply.

Of course, that is a very limited driver... You might do better with another driver... but NOT a TB6560 based unit... Please! Those are horrible.

And we don't know much about the motor. How many wires? What current rating?

Another possibility: Use a mechanical solution to produce faster motion. E.g. a gear or belt drive. Steppers have more torque at low speeds. You can trade some of that for speed via a drive system.