Suggestions for driving Applied Motion Products 44A515128-001

Was given a pair of stepper motors by a friend and am wondering how to drive them. These seem to be quite high quality, machined aluminum housing, etc. Haven't turned up much useful information about them online; specs on device itself show:

Holding torque: 80 oz/in
Steps: 200 per rev
2.25v, 2.25A, DC

8-wire harness: blk, blk/wh, red, red/wh, yel, yel/wh, or, or/wh

Can't seem to track down a datasheet for this one. Electronics goldmine apparently is currently selling these, but has no datasheet available (I've already emailed them about it - lord knows I've spent enough money there to get a few questions answered )

It's been quite a while since I've played with these, but the 2.25v source seems odd. Can these be driven with a ready-to-run driver like the Sparkfun EasyDriver? Do these have enough torque to drive X and Y axis of a simple DIY CNC machine?

buzzdavidson:
Was given a pair of stepper motors by a friend and am wondering how to drive them. These seem to be quite high quality, machined aluminum housing, etc. Haven't turned up much useful information about them online; specs on device itself show:

Holding torque: 80 oz/in
Steps: 200 per rev
2.25v, 2.25A, DC

8-wire harness: blk, blk/wh, red, red/wh, yel, yel/wh, or, or/wh

Can't seem to track down a datasheet for this one. Electronics goldmine apparently is currently selling these, but has no datasheet available (I've already emailed them about it - lord knows I've spent enough money there to get a few questions answered )

It's been quite a while since I've played with these, but the 2.25v source seems odd. Can these be driven with a ready-to-run driver like the Sparkfun EasyDriver? Do these have enough torque to drive X and Y axis of a simple DIY CNC machine?

To be frank a datasheet probably wouldn't say much more, these are the key specifications. Its wired as unipolar but with low-resistance windings so could be more sensibly driven as bipolar with a constant-current PWM driver.

The lead colours are probably a standard for unipolar, wikipedia probably will know. The size makes it probably a NEMA23 motor

The torque required for a CNC drive depends on the type and size of drive - ballscrew/leadscrew/toothed-belt?

Cool, thanks for the reply! I don't actually have any plans for these at the moment, just deciding whether to hold on to em or pass them along. I have some vague notions of building a RepRap or potentially a DIY laser cutter for acrylic sheet - both would be really handy (not to mention fun to build).

Eight wire steppers can be wired as either unipolar or bipolar.

Your first step would be to group the wires into their four pairs by testing for conductivity. But, as it's kinda obvious, the orange, black, red, and yellow wires and their white-striped counterparts form each of the pairs.

If you're going to wire it bipolar series to keep the current low and match most of the drivers out there, then the orange and black form a pair and would have their white counterparts connected together, and then the same for the red and yellow set. Using the image at the bottom left as an example, the wires would be black (A), black white tied to orange white, orange (B), red (C), red white tied to yellow white, yellow (D).

I have figured out a way to find the leads, you need to have a bi-polar driver available. Detail instructions here: (Or visit my website for more info http://www.dreamationworks.com/?p=770)

Set up your driver with a reasonable current (say 50% of rated value on motor) (Or if you don’t have that setting, use a low voltage) Set the driver to spinning (You may need a controller to give the driver a pluse, in my case I use my Arduino, you can use a signal generator too)

An 8 wire stepper commonly has 4 separate coils. You can identify them using a simple ohm meter, this you can sort out four pairs of cables.
If you do not have a ohm meter, use one of your driver’s output (If your driver has A1 A2 B1 B2, use A1 A2). Randomly plug two out of the eight leads into your driver until the motor shaft vibrates, that two lead belongs together.
Now suppose you have found your 4 coils, you need to figure out which two belongs to the same pole, and the polarity of the leads. assuming that the coils are named P Q R S. Where P Q is on one phase, R S on opposite phase.

First pick one coil and name the leads P1 P2, this will be connected to you driver’s A1 A2.
Pick another coil and plug it to the driver’s B1 B2, if motor vibrates but not rotate, that coil is on the same phase as coil P, ignore that coil now, try another coil. If the motor rotates, it is the coil on the other phase. If that configuration spin in clockwise, name the leads in B1 as R1, B2 as R2, if it spins in counter clockwise, reverse two leads in B1 B2 and that should make the motor spin clockwise, name them.
Repeat that on the other opposite coil, name the leads S1 S2, make sure the motor spins the same way.
Next, keep S1 in B1 and S2 in B2 and plug in the remaining unknown coil to driver A1 A2. If motor spins clockwise, name the lead in A1 as Q1, A2 as Q2, otherwise, swap the two unknown wire, that should make the motor spin clockwise, name them.
Now you have all 8 leads named, wire them as you wish in a 8 wire, 4 wire (parallel), 4 wire (series) or 6 wire configurations.