Stepper Motor Controling

[BEEKMAN]

Are there any good link on how to control a stepper motor using the IFI (i think ours is 2006) system?

~Brendan

[RyanN]

It will be a little tough to control one. I don't have much experience with them either. I've messed with stepper motors a long time ago using a basic stamp board.

First off, do you understand the concept of how stepper motors work?

You should use the Digital I/O ports in output mode. You'll need something to convert the small signal of the Digital I/O bus to a higher current to run the stepper motors.

This looks like a good website to help you out: http://www.piclist.com/techref/io/stepper/wires.htm

The 4 wire stepper motor will be the easiest to wire and run.

Take what I've said with a grain of salt... I really don't know much about them.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Brendan,
Steppers are a particularly useful device for certain applications. They are effectively a multiphase controlled positioner. You can find them from three phase on up depending on the accuracy you need for an application. They also require feedback of some sort, usually an accurate tach wheel or in the case of video tape recorders both a tach wheel and position info derived from the recorded video signal and a control track on tape. The phase difference between drive signals is dependent on the number poles of the motor and the angular relationship. There are many integrated circuit solutions for stepper control that can take in error signals, tach and power and output high current phase control. How you develop the error signal is dependent on what you are using the motor for. In a tape recorder, the motor is first brought up to speed using tach wheel, then the motor is phased using the control track recorded on tape, then fine phase is achieved using the video track or track start and RF sampling to stay locked.