Stepper Motor Quickstart Guide

Stepping up to the Challenge

There are a handful of motorcycles to choose from, and sometimes it's as clear that one will be best suited for your specific application. In this tutorial, we are one of the motors, stepper motor will be discussed, and when it is better to choose on the option of a stepper motor. How do we EasyDriver stepper motor driver board, driver board with one of the simplest around the motor to be used will be discussed.

Stepper Motor Quickstart Guide

Necessity

Here is a list of recommended items required to follow along:

• EasyDriver stepper motor driver
• Small stepper motor
• breadboard
• Male-to-male jumper wires
• Male header to break away - straight
• Arduino Uno (or similar microcontroller)
• Soldering iron and accessories
• 12V power supply (or variable power supply)

How it works

Stepper motor, rather than just spinning in one direction or the other that is different from the regular DC motors, they can spin in very precise increments. Imagine a motor in an RC airplane. Motor rotation direction or the other very quickly. Motor speed can vary the amount of power given to you, but if you can not tell the driver to stop at a certain position. Now imagine a printer. The motor including a printer, there are a lot of moving parts inside. Such a motor, paper feed rollers that act as the ink is printed on a piece of paper as the spinning move. This paper is a proper distance motor to move to the next line and the next line of text or image will be able to be able to print. Another motor of a thread rod that is attached to the rest of the print head moves back. Again, that's one letter after another threaded rod to print an exact amount needs to be moved. This is where the stepper motor will come in handy.

Stepper motor degree (or steps) of an exact amount can move when told to do so. This is a move in the right position and hold in that position, thereby allowing total control of the motor. It is for a very short period of time so that by powering the motor inside the coil. Motor power trade-off you have to keep it all the time position that you desire. We will not go into too much detail, but I'm asking you all the information you can check out the Wikipedia article on stepper motors. All you need to know for now is that of a stepper motor to move, you move it in one direction or another to tell a certain number of steps, and it is to say the speed of the steps in that direction.

There are many varieties, as well as stepper motor driver board with which to control them. The methods described in this tutorial, not to mention the other motor and driver can be used to estimate how use. However, it is always recommended that you consult datasheets and guides specific to the motor and driver model.

How to use it

Here we are, how to assemble and hook up with the firmware upload to the Arduino motor control will be discussed.

Rally

The easiest way is easy for drivers to use a breadboard for easy access onto the header is added to it. Alternatively, you can solder wires straight boards. These instructions assume that you are using breadboard system.

Easy Driver solder directly to the male headers in the first step. Simple drivers of very few pins to be used in this example. However, when the collapse of a breadboard connected to the header pins are soldered to the board for more stability is recommended. This is a simple method, to cut off the desired amount of headers in their appropriate locations breadboard space, the Easy Driver space, and then solder the connections are.

Stepper Motor Quickstart Guide

Stepper Motor Quickstart Guide

Stepper Motor Quickstart Guide

Hook-Up

Once you have all of the header soldered on, it's time to hook up your Arduino easy driver. Using the picture below, all the necessary connections.

Note: small stepper motor looks different than pictured. It should be part of a 4-pin connector. The 4-pin male header connected to facing upward (see the Assembly picture # 3). Due to the nature of this particular move in both the orientation of the connector, meaning you can hook up the black wire from the left or from left to yellow wire. It will work in both cases. If you are using a different motor, where to go to find out which cable documentation.

Important: stepper motor requires more power than can be supplied by Arduino. In this example, we'll Uno powering a 12V external supply. Note that the power input (M +) EasyDriver Vin pin on the Arduino is connected. This is the same power supply to both the Arduino and will allow the motor with power.

Firmware

Once you have everything set up correctly, you can upload the firmware for Arduino. The following are some very simple example code to get you up and running. There are many online examples, as well as a stepper library included with Arduino IDE. Feel free to play around with the code, change the value to see what happens, and feel free to explore other codes.

Going Forward

Now that you've figured out how to operate the stepper motor in its simplest level, it's time to take the next level. Easy driver and stepper motors in general about the vast amount of information on the web. The next best place to look would be EasyDriver website. In addition, a great tutorial on bildr. Another great resource is the Easy Driver Schematic. Easy Driver curious as to what you do on the other pins are then designed to give you some insight. Lastly, stepper motor involved in my project, Arduino can check out one. It is, I EasyDriver controlled by an X-Y gantry that moves automatically to create a Ouija board to use stepper motors.

Are you well on your way to your next project should be to add to the stepper motor. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to show off your projects, then drop us a line in the comments below. Happy hacking!