stepper motor question

hello,
i recently was given one of these old stepper motor drivers:
https://googledrive.com/host/0B4oBpijiYVvpQ21idW5uN2xQS1E/thingomatic-doc_stepper-driver-3-3.html

it has a STEP/DIR/ENABLE type of interface if that means anything (doesn't really to me)

I think it might have been fried...but the light turns on when i give it 12v.

i have never in my life been able to get a stepper motor working. but this driver seems easy enough. i have the step pin, direction pin and enable pin hooked up to my arduino and am powering the driver with a 12v .8 amp wall wort. it's a bipolar motor.

i don't really know what i'm doing when it comes to programming this. I have the enable pin on LOW, the direction pin on HIGH (i don't care what direction it goes in) and then i've been trying different configurations with the step pin but i'm not getting anything at all out of the motor.

any suggestions? i can't find any tutorials on this old makerbot driver anywhere...at this point i just want to see if i can get the stepper to move!

thanks for any help!

It is base on A3977.

The documentation for A3977 has been largely pulled from the web since they are older products. If you compare the A3977 and A4988, you'll see that they are essentially the same at the level of detail. One difference is that the A3977 does not have 1/16th stepping possibility, only full, 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8th, set by two pins, MS1, and MS2. A second difference is that the A3977 supports higher currents and therefore bigger motors, with a rated current of 2.5A compared with 2A for the A4988. You must spent time to read difference.

A4988 Arduino Example Code

int dirPin = 8;
int stepperPin = 7;
void setup() {
 pinMode(dirPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(stepperPin, OUTPUT);
}
 void step(boolean dir,int steps){
 digitalWrite(dirPin,dir);
 delay(50);
 for(int i=0;i<steps;i++){
   digitalWrite(stepperPin, HIGH);
   delayMicroseconds(800);
   digitalWrite(stepperPin, LOW);
   delayMicroseconds(800);
 }
}
void loop(){
 step(true,1600);
 delay(500);
 step(false,1600*5);
 delay(500);
}

http://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/A4988_Stepper_Motor_Driver_Carrier_Board

I do not recommend to use it if it is your first driver.

Is the enable line active-low then? Have you tried enable HIGH?

thanks so much for the help. i tried the sample code and nothing happened. i think that the board/motor are fried. it came with an arduino also and the arduino was fried so i guess whatever happened to it also ruined the motor driver. i also tried it with enable on HIGH and LOW...no reaction at all.

what driver would you recommend to start out with for a stepper? i always have such a hard time with these things....i just want to spin something around. i don't need any precision. just want to use a stepper because they are quieter and smaller than a dc motor.

thanks!