I am very new to this part of my comfort zone. I typically do HVAC and love a challenge. I am trying to make a driver to control or check a small stepper motor. I would like to drive several different stepper motors to check operation. Are they moving or closing. I am a little lost but hoping to understand with some help. I know they can be driven with a 9 v battery. One is a 6 wire looks like 4 coils and one is a 5 wire. Any help would be great. Sorry if this is to basic and not allowed. I will remove.
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You probably won’t find much help here, since this forum is generally focused on a robotics competition that doesn’t use stepper motors.
That said, steppers are like brushless motors. You can’t just hook them up to a power supply and expect them to spin. You need a controller to cycle the current through the coils in sync with the movement. The stepper drivers themselves need a low-current control signal, typically “pulse and direction” or an analog velocity signal. You have to input these with a computer or a fancy arrangent of switches.
If you google “Stepper Drivers” you’ll find some good information and some hobby grade ones for sale.
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Adafruit typically has good documentation matched with their products, here are some resources you might find useful
@nuclearnerd and/or @Stand or anyone else who knows…
I would like to know why FRC doesn’t allow stepper motors and I’m wondering if either of you have officially asked FIRST to add steppers to their “approved motor list”. Now before you tell me to reach through all the posts on Chief Delphi describing the potential downsides of stepper motors, let me say “I have, and I’m aware of the downsides”. But I’m also aware of the upsides, and I think that for many teams, the upsides outweigh the downsides. I think that teams should be allowed to use stepper motors if they want to. Have either of you petitioned FIRST to allow steppers? Do you know what FIRST’s response has been to people who have petitioned for this?
I have not asked no. Maybe you should! It won’t happen for 2024 though.
One challenge with FIRST is that they want to review and individually approve all motor drives to make sure they respect the disabled signal from the RIO. So you’d have to find a vendor (or reseller) who was willing to go through that application and testing process.
Steppers are also heavier and slower for a given power compared to 3-phase brushless motors, so a vendor might have a tough time selling it to teams from a “performance” point of view.
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