# Stepper Motor



## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

Hey everyone! I got this little stepper motor from an old flat bed printer:









So my question is what exactly can I do with this little guy? Props? Also I am new to wiring and I have no clue how to wire this to a wall adaptor so if you could help me with that, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

~SuperCreep


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## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

after watching some videos on youtube I don't think it's gonna be powerful enough to do anything worth while. Am I right?


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## sluggo (Jun 16, 2010)

I would think it is unlikely you'd find a use for such a small motor without using a gearbox or some other way of increasing the torque. Also, stepper motors don't work like regular motors. You don't just apply power and watch them spin. They need a controller to move them one step at a time. I use a much larger stepper motor for my dropping spider: http://markshauntedgarage.com/halloween/techinfo/spider.php


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## psyko99 (Jan 11, 2008)

Sluggo is right, a stepper motor is not like a normal motor. You need to have a controller to run it. It may not be powerful enough to power a FCG, but you might be able to use it for something small like animating a 13-hour clock.

I've never used one, but maybe one of the experts here can point you to a tutorial on using a stepper motor.


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## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

thanks for your input guys-yeah if someone has a tutorial with a stepper motor please post. I saw your spider tutorial Sluggo and my motor just won't work because it is too small-like you said.


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## sluggo (Jun 16, 2010)

Your motor certainly wouldn't work for my spider, but like psyko99 said, it might work for something like clock hands, and that would be a good use for a stepper motor. It would allow you to fairly precisely position the hands of the clock. But, for that, you would need a controller of some kind.


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## psyko99 (Jan 11, 2008)

The Wolfstone technical base has a good explanation of unipolar stepper motors here. It is a good place to start for almost anything electronic although he's not keeping it up to date.

You could try this kit or this one if it is a Unipolar motor. Both require basic soldering. You can find similar kits for bipolar stepper motors. I can't tell what kind it is from the picture. You could punch the part # into google and see what you get back.

If you feel adventurous you could look into using a Picaxe microcontroller an build your own.

Getting into electronics is like falling down a rabbit hole.


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## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

does it have to have a controller or can it just go straight to a wall adapter?


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## sluggo (Jun 16, 2010)

As I said earlier, you can't just apply power and expect it to spin. Here's a description taken from Wikipedia:



> Stepper motors operate differently from DC brush motors, which rotate when voltage is applied to their terminals. Stepper motors, on the other hand, effectively have multiple "toothed" electromagnets arranged around a central gear-shaped piece of iron. The electromagnets are energized by an external control circuit, such as a microcontroller. To make the motor shaft turn, first one electromagnet is given power, which makes the gear's teeth magnetically attracted to the electromagnet's teeth. When the gear's teeth are thus aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly offset from the next electromagnet. So when the next electromagnet is turned on and the first is turned off, the gear rotates slightly to align with the next one, and from there the process is repeated. Each of those slight rotations is called a "step", with an integer number of steps making a full rotation. In that way, the motor can be turned by a precise angle.


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## SuperCreep31 (Nov 22, 2009)

dang-sorry for not catching that...looks like this motor goes into the "Wish i had the skill to do" box ha ha-maybe someday. Thanks for the feedback everyone


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## psyko99 (Jan 11, 2008)

Well, this may be a good project to start with.


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