Quality of Bela clock (to control motors)

php0614

Hi, I've been using Bela for almost 10 years but have never used it for controlling motors.

I have a stepping motor and a controller with closed-loop and feedback features.

I am not very experienced with motors, but I heard that stable timing of pulses is very important for precise and quiet operation of motors.

When compared to Arduino or Raspberry Pi, how is the quality of Bela's clock?

Does it generate pulse waves with stable frequency and relatively precise timing?

I expect Bela's DAC and the audio outputs have good timing, but I cannot be sure if this also applies to voltage pin outputs.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could advise.

Best,
Phil

giuliomoro

The digital I/Os are sampled at 44100 Hz, the analogs at 22050 Hz ( by default). That allows you to generate very accurate (jitter < 1us) digital and analog waveforms, which is much better than what you can get by bitbanging a pin on a Pi or Arduino (except very simple loops in Arduino, which can get even lower, but may fall apart as soon as the complexity increases slightly).

If you need to generate PWM with higher clocks, look at the Extras/pru-pwm, which provides 8 pwm outputs with much higher bitclocks.