The book, "Easy Step'n" provides the experimenter with the information needed to use stepper motors.

Determine important surplus motor electrial and mechancial specs using simple, easy to build electrical and mechanical test equipment. Design and build microcontroller-based control systems for stepper motor applications (flow charts and code examples included). Design and build the driver circuits needed to switch the power applied to stepper motor windings. Analyze the mechanical characteristics of stepper motor-driven devices.

The book is hands-on and full of experiments. The approach is the crawl-before-you-walk-before-you-run and it's fun!
 

Complete Table of Contents For "Easy Step'n

Square 1 Electronics' new book, "Easy Step'n", An Introduction to Stepper Motors for the Experimenter,"   explains to the reader how to determine surplus motor electrical and mechanical specs by using easy-to-build electrical and mechanical test equipment. The experimenter will learn to design and build microcontroller based control systems and to design and build driver circuits to switch power applied to stepper motor windings. The book is hands-on and full of experiments. The format of the books uses flow charts and many code examples in a step-by-step approach. The complete table of contents follows:

Please note: This book is available only from us or from the usual catalog electronics suppliers. It is not available in bookstores.

This book was written by David Benson (8-1/2 x 11", 200 pages, $34.95USD). David is also the author of "Easy PIC'n", "PIC'n Up the Pace," and "PIC'n Techniques", which are books instructing people on how to use Microchip's PICmicro® microcontrollers.

EASY STEP'n, An Introduction to Stepper Motors for the Experimenter from Square 1 Electronics, written by David Benson

INTRODUCTION

 Terminology

 Coil vs. winding vs. phase

 Stepper Motor Types

Stepper Motor Specifications

Stepper Motor Selection Criteria

Stepper Motor Sizes
 

NEMA "Teen" Cubes

NEMA Size 23 Cylinders

Stacked Cans With Diamond-Shaped Mounting Flange

 

 
 
 

 Rough Motor Specs - Based On My Experiments

 Gear Puller

 GETTING STARTED

4-Phase Stepper Motors
 

Exercise motor with four SPST toggle switches and a power supply

 

Testing 5-wire and 6-wire motors

- Full steps - one winding energized (wave drive)

- Full steps - two adjacent windings energized in each

  detent position (normal mode)

- Half steps - alternately one winding energized, two

  adjacent windings energized

Testing an 8-wire motor

 

 
 
 

2-Phase Stepper Motors
 

Determine wiring with ohmmeter

Exercise motor with two DPDT on-off-on toggle switches and a

    power supply

- Full steps - one winding energized (wave drive)

- Full steps - two windings energized (normal mode)

- Half step sequence - alternately one winding energized,

  two windings energized

 

 
 
 

MICROCONTROLLER-BASED STEPPER MOTOR CONTROL - INTRODUCTION
 

PICMicro® instruction set

Hexadecimal notation

Compare using PICMicro®

Interrupt service and saving context

 

 
 
 

 TEST CIRCUITS OVERVIEW

 Overview

 Test Board for Exercising Stepper Motors

Pulser

Switches And Pull-ups

Construction Techniques And Board Design

Pulser software

Testing the pulser

 

 
 
 

Translators
 

PIC16F84A translator (unipolar bit pattern)

- Software design

- Hardware design

- Code

- Testing the PIC16F84A unipolar translator

PIC16F84A translator (bipolar bit pattern)

- Design

- Code

- Testing the PIC16F84A bipolar translator

 

 
 
 

Simple Drivers

 Unipolar
 

Simple ULN2803A driver

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a pulser, PIC16F84A

    translator and a ULN2803A unipolar driver

Simple TIP120 driver

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a pulser, PIC16F84A

    translator and a TIP120 unipolar driver

UCN5804B translator/driver

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a pulser and a UCN5804B translator/driver

 

 
 
 

 Bipolar
 

H-Bridge

L293D driver (dual H-bridge)

Exercising a bipolar stepper motor using a pulser, PIC16F84A

    translator and an L293D bipolar driver

L298N driver (dual H-bridge)

Exercising a bipolar stepper motor using a pulser, PIC16F84A,

    translator and an L298N biopolar driver

 TORQUE MEASUREMENT
 

Motor (what's available) via lever arm and weights

- Holding, add weight until slips

- Moving, add weight until won't turn

Application (what's required) via lever arm and weights

Lever arms and fishing sinkers

 

 
 
 

 MAXIMUM STEP RATE MEASUREMENT

 MICROCONTROLLER-BASED STEPPER MOTOR CONTROL

 Unipolar
 

Simple unipolar stepper control - straight line code

Full steps - one winding energized

How to reverse direction

Change delay time to change speed

Table lookup and counter to get bit pattern for each step

Full steps - two windings energized

Half step sequence

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a microcontroller,

    PIC16F84A translator and a ULN2803A or TIP 120 unipolar driver

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a microcontroller and a UCN5804B translator/driver

 

 
 
 

 Bipolar
 

Exercising a bipolar stepper motor using a microcontroller and

    an L293D or L298N bipolar driver

 HIGH PERFORMANCE DRIVE CIRCUITS - Current Control
 

Limitations of voltage control and need for high performance current control

 

 
 
 

 Unipolar
 

SLA7024M unipolar driver - Allegro

Exercising a unipolar stepper motor using a pulser, PIC16F84A

    translator and a SLA7024M driver

- Maximum stepping rate at higher than rated voltage

- Torque operating at higher than rated voltage

 

 
 
 

Bipolar
 

L297/L298N bipolar translator/driver

Exercising a bipolar stepper motor using a pulser and a L297/L298N translator/driver

- Maximum stepping rate at higher than rated voltage

- Torque operating at higher than rated voltage

Exercising a bipolar stepper motor using a microcontroller and a     L297/L298N translator/driver

 

 
 
 

 Controlling A STEPPER MOTOR WITH A PC
 

Serial port, parallel port

Programming languages

Port board, not mother board

 

 
 
 

 MECHANICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 Mounting The Stepper Motor And Heat Dissipation

 Grabbing On To The Shaft = Mechanical Connection
 

Avoid damaging the shaft (clamp, flat, split hub)

Shaft couplings - alignment, flex

Avoid applying a thrust load to the shaft

 

 
 
 

 Converting Rotary Motion To Linear Motion

 Mechanics
 

Torque

Inertia

 

 
 
 

 Position - Home Or Starting Position Sensor
 

Test for accuracy

 

 
 
 

 Backlash

 NEMA 23 Tester

 PRINTER EXPERIMENT
 

Software design

Code snippet

Implement your design

 

 
 
 

 QUICK STEP'n
 

Test Hardware

Software design details

Home Position

Ramping up/down and rapid traverse

- Ramping up - acceleration

- Ramping down - deceleration

Speed - rapid traverse

Destination

More software details

Code

 

 
 
 

 APPENDIX A - Fast Diodes

 APPENDIX B - Parts Lists

 APPENDIX C - Sources

 APPENDIX D - Program Listings vs. Page Number

Copyright © 1996-2005 Dontronics