Why does a delay make my stepper stop? And why does the break command raise an error?

Question

I am using a stepper motor for a project that I want it to stop. I tried for loops, while, and an if statement. All of these were placed inside the void loop, because it raised an error.

My code with the if loop:

//This program does about 1 rotation or 4100 steps. The program should be able to stop the stepper motor after it does one rotation.
int Pin1 = 8;
int Pin2 = 9;
int Pin3 = 10;
int Pin4 = 11;
int _step = 0;
int _on = 4100;
int _switches = 0;
boolean direct = false;
void setup() {
  pinMode (Pin1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (Pin2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (Pin3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode (Pin4, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  if (_on > 0) {
    switch(_step) 
    {
      case 0:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, HIGH);
      break;
      case 1:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, HIGH);
      break;
      case 2:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
      case 3:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
      case 4:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
      case 5:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
      case 6:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
      case 7:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, HIGH);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, HIGH);
      break;
      case 8:
        digitalWrite (Pin1, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin2, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin3, LOW);
        digitalWrite (Pin4, LOW);
      break;
    }

    if(direct == false) {
      _step++;
      _switches++;
      direct = false;
    }else{
      _step--;
      _switches--;
      direct = true;
    }

    Serial.println(_switches);

    if(_step>7) {
      _step=0;
    }

    if(_step<0) {
      _step=7;
    }
    _on--;
    delay(1); // This solves it.
  }
  break; //This raises an error when used with for loop.
}

Can anyone help on why the delay makes it stop? And why the break command raises and error?

Arduino UNO. 5 wire stepper.

Answer 1

... why the break command raises and error?

Because you are using it wrong! break will end a loop, and is used in the switch...case statements. Read the documentation for break if you need to know more

I have fixed it, the delay at the end fixes it for some reason. I don’t know why though.

You haven't really fixed it if you don't know why. It seems that you are trying to directly control a 5 wire stepper, i assume your pins must drive a transistor or something as the arduino pins themselves will not work.

The reason it works is because the stepper takes time to energize and move, if you don't wait long enough it won't work, your serial.print must be long enough, as the delay(1) should produce a 1ms delay which is too short.

You are driving your stepper wrong, you have the code setup for a half-step control, but you have 9 states, state 8 in not needed.

you are duplicating effort you don't need with both _steps and _switches, they always have the same value.

you can do better on your code as well:

int dir = 1
int c = 0

// in loop
c += dir

if (c > max)
{
  dir *= -1
  c = max
}

if (c < min)
{
  dir *= -1
  c = min
}

With this you don't have to check the direction to modify your variables.

Answer 2

In simple terms: break() literally breaks out of the immediate loop it is in. Since you were in no loop [void loop() is not your usual loop functions, it's just Arduino-for keep repeating whatever is inside infinitely. You could use a for/while loop in setup() for how many ever times you want it to run and then use break().] delay(time in ms), as the name says just pauses the Arduino like a brainfart for how much ever time you put as the parameter. You could check out this link in the future for information of inbuilt functions and other language-related doubts.