steppers (x4)

Can you have enough stepper motors? Maybe.

I did an investment. I had one driver IC and a good motor. I added 4 somewhat heavier motors, and 4 Allegro A4988 drivers.

(for my own documentation)

Motor Type: Bipolar Stepper
Step Angle: 1.8 deg.
Holding Torque: 40N.cm (56oz.in)
Rated Current/phase: 1.7A
Phase Resistance: 1.5Ohm±10%
Insulation Resistance: 100MΩ¸ Min, 500VDC
Insulation Strength: 500VAC for one minute
Physical Specification:
Frame Size: 42 x 42mm (1.7 inch x 1.7 inch)
Body Length: 40mm
Shaft Diameter: 5mm
Number of Wire Leads: 4
Wire Length: 400mm
Weight: 280g
Temperature rise: 80deg Max(rated current, 2 phase on)

Rood B+
Groen A-
Zwart A+
Blauw B-

One more strange stepper is on its way from China:
,

Goal is to control them with a single Pico.

Top Replies

acdc90 4 months ago

Hi if you pulled the big motors out from printers it some times helps to keep the driver boards it can help with wiring / voltage / feedback/ current

keep in mind once the motor has moved to position X will it still have full current left on that coil,

do you drop the current or have a mechanical brake ?
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Jan Cumps 4 months ago in reply to acdc90

I have driver ICs that manage the current. TI DRV8711 and Allegro A4988
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Jan Cumps 4 months ago in reply to acdc90

(coincidentally, I did take a stepper out of a printer / scanner for a design challenge - my 1st ever e14 interaction)
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obones 4 months ago in reply to beacon_dave

What was the usage of such tiny motor ?
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battlecoder 4 months ago in reply to obones

I've purchased similar smaller motors and I think one of the main uses is for camera lenses (for the aperture and focusing control)
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Jan Cumps 4 months ago

I'm out of jumper cables ...
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Stevio73 3 months ago

I’ve always been curious about multiples of steppers. Could two be used in the same ‘action’ to multiply the torque or holding force?
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Jan Cumps 3 months ago in reply to Stevio73

You can electrically wire motors parallel or in series. You would not need software to drive them independently in that case. Because a single step command would control both.

Contrary to what you'd initially expect , total torque of two parallel driven steppers is lower than of a single motor. in series, the torque adds, but the maximum stepper speed lowers due to inductance increase.
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shabaz 3 months ago in reply to Stevio73

As what Jan Cumps says, also, I'm no expert, but I believe it would be a lot cheaper to size up to a more powerful stepper than to try to combine the outputs (which could have issues since there are more moving parts). Quite massive stepper motors are possible (and not too expensive) and then beyond that for high end stuff, I guess brushless DC motor based servo's are probably more prevalent (and more pricey).

I'd quite like to make a rotating camera mount for a few photos, and shopped for a larger more powerful stepper, and it didn't cost a lot (still waiting for it to arrive). I might consider adding an extra mechanism on the end (like a harmonic drive type system) for even more torque and finer motion, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it (because those can cost way more than the stepper motor itself, so I'd first just like to beef up the motor at lower cost, and incrementally improve things without a large cost outlay up-front).
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obones 3 months ago in reply to Jan Cumps

What if I'd wanted to use two stepper motors for both sides of a gantry system? Should I wire them in series/parallel or would it be more suitable to use two independently controlled steppers?
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