What is a stepper motor?
“A brushless, synchronous motor, which divides a full rotation into a number of steps” The rotation does this in discrete step angles. They’re manufacture with “steps per revolution of “12, 24, 72, 144, 180, and 200, resulting in stepping angles of 30, 15, 5, 2.5, 2, and 1.8 degrees per step.”
How does a Stepper Motor Work?
“A regular DC motor spins in only direction whereas a Stepper motor can spin in precise increments.” You have control over the motor as you can control the number of steps it moves - allowing control to move it to an exact location and holding that position for a period of time. In order to keep the position of the moto you have to power the motor all the time.
Code Example from: Arduino - Stepper Motor - Tutorialspoint
The following code drives a bipolar or unipolar stepper motor and is connected to digital pins 8 to 11 on the Arduino.
/* Stepper Motor Control */
#include <Stepper.h>
const int stepsPerRevolution = 90;
// change this to fit the number of steps per revolution
// for your motor
// initialize the stepper library on pins 8 through 11:
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, 8, 9, 10, 11);
void setup() {
// set the speed at 60 rpm:
myStepper.setSpeed(5);
// initialize the serial port:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
// step one revolution in one direction:
Serial.println("clockwise");
myStepper.step(stepsPerRevolution);
delay(500);
// step one revolution in the other direction:
Serial.println("counterclockwise");
myStepper.step(-stepsPerRevolution);
delay(500);
}There are two types of steppers: Unipolars and Bipolars - they have different circuits and require different types of equipment.
Arduino connects to:
- UniPolar stepper:
- Bipolar Motor:
Stepper Library for the Arduino can be found here: Arduino - Stepper
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