Stepper Motors

[cooldog]

can i take a stepper motor and just apply a volatge and it will turn or will i need a microcontroller to make the right pattern commands

[benji]

in steppers you should regulate your powering to your steppers to make it turn, its a matter of powering a number of coils
,in most steppers you need 4 pins to do this and another 2 which is vcc and ground.
google stepper motors and youll get intensive info,there are also some ics made as stepper drivers

[cooldog]

so can i

(sorry i have no idea what you just said)

[paulstreats]

You can just apply voltages to the seperate coils 1 at a time. If you want to do it without a microcontroller, then you should be able to do something with a 555 timer and some mosfets

[cooldog]

so thats a no

[ed1380]

something like the distributator cap off a car would work. the faster you turn the distributor the faster teh stepper will turn

[Rebelgium]

Isn't that the first sentence in every stepper motor tutorial?
You can't just apply voltage to the leads to make it turn. The easiest way is to use a stepper controller IC.

[cooldog]

is there a simple circut that i can make

or can i salvalge them from electonics

[hazzer123]

Heres a schematic that controls a unipolar stepper motor. All you need to give it is a direction and a step pulse.

http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/stepper.asp

I used it when i was beginning electronics. It was useful in both helping me get a stepper motor turning, and understanding logic gates.

Take time to really understand the circuit. And understand every circuit you use. Then you will be able to make your own more quickly.

[benji]

sure no, to make it turn u need to make your 4 bits turn which means the powering to the coils turn and thus the shaft turns

[cooldog]

can use the motor drivers from printor or scanners to controll stepper motors