I have a Stepper motor that i have been told is 3 Phase, and testing assumes so.
It has 3 wires that belong to the coils, the encoder setup has been removed so i can fit it in my project.
I see on the arduino examples there are a few stepper controllers, but i see nothing for a 3 phase motor.
Does anyone have a link or something i can use to drive this thing?
I need code as well
Much appreciated. Please excuse my newness.
Most stepper motors have four phases, and are either unipolar or bipolar. By the sound of it, if the motor was fitted with an encoder, it may in fact be a brushless DC motor. Those are nearly always three phase, but require three Hall-effect sensors to make the electronic commutation work.
Do you have a part number or data sheet for the motor? We'll need to know voltage and current ratings before we can suggest driver circuits.
It has 3 wires that belong to the coils,
Are you sure it is a three phase stepping motor?
If it was I would have expected it to have 6 wires, two for each phase coil. As it is it could be a two phase motor with a common connection. In that case it would require driving voltages that go positive and negative of the common point.
Have you tried measuring the resistance you get between the wires?
Servo Magnetics inc
STK p/n 3137(looks like an 8)58-02
SMI p/n 200-0020 REV B.
Im pretty sure it's 3 phase because i used 3 Fullwave Bridge rectifiers on the wires and used it like a small generator.
now instead of turning motion into electricity, i want it to go the other way 
I also have a smaller one with 4 wires, i am interested in using this one as well. Although I do know in theory how they work, I am new to these types of motors and never actually made a useful scenario out of one.
No, i didn't measure the resistance of the coils, iv'e been trying to find something with that part number on it as far as a datasheet or something. ive got nothing so far.
That doesn't sound like a stepping motor to me.
Have a look at may page about motors:-
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Motors_1.html
that page has a lot of interesting stuff on DC motors, but this on is a stepper of some sort. you can feel the steps as you turn the pulley on it.
there are no center tapped coils, only 3 wires. i would guess at the voltage because i can't find it anywhere, so...
it's probably around 4V,
i wonder if it can be driven like this:
123 pins
001
010
100
you can feel the steps as you turn the pulley on it.
I own several R/C type DC brushless motors that have a 3 wire windings. You can feel the 'steps' as you slowly turn the prop manually, so that is not an indication that you own a stepper motor. These kind of brushless motors need to be driven by a purpose designed motor controller .
As others have said you very likely have a 3 phase brushless DC motor.
Lefty
ok, so...if it's as you guys say which it probably is, becuase im new to this
can we drive one? can i code it with an arduino and use some MOSFETs to drive the coils?
Im not sure what the 3 phase pattern is for this sort of thing
You can easily drive DC stepper motors with Arduino digital outputs and MOSFET switching transistors. However brushless DC motors require a much more sophisticated controller to work. A brushless 3 phase motor is more like a AC motor and requires precise voltage/current control and speed feedback information for all 3 phases to work. Unless you have a matching and compatable controller for that motor you are better off obtaining a stepper motor.
Lefty
ok, well, scratch that lol
I just found another one i can use, this is definitely a stepper
3.6 ohms
1.8 deg per step
Sanyo 103h5205-0345
this one's got 6 wires all on a connector with 6 pins, probably 2 center-tapped coils.
has anyone ever driven this kind?
that page has a lot of interesting stuff on DC motors, but this on is a stepper of some sort.
look at the top of the page and click on the Motors 3 and Motors 4, those are all about stepping motors.
You have 3-Phase Hybrid Stepping Motor!
Coils connected in Star (or Delta):
Here is how it work:
http://en.nanotec.com/steppermotor_animation.html
BLCD-Motoren -> Block-Star