Hi guys, started my first project with the Arduno Uno, Easy Driver and the sparkfun stepper. It was to open and close a heavy drawer automatically using the stepper and setting it's limits with micro switches. Also incorporating a switch on reset (if someone turned off the power whilst in the middle of an operation).
After putting it together it was a breeze to get up up and running, I come from a software dev background
Problem: I notice on the spec of the stepper that it states 2.8v and 1.68A... is that right? where would I find such a power supply and how would that work with the big easy driver? e.g is 2.8v too low to operate it?
What you have there is a bipolar high-performance stepper designed for high torque and high speed. They are meant to be driven from a high voltage via a chopper IC that keeps the average winding current constant (like PWM for motors but controlled directly from current). With a high voltage supply the chopping acts as a buck-regulator (which is power-efficient) but allows lots of back-EMF and thus high rotation speed.
A typical driver chip would be the A4988 or L6208 or many others
You'll notice the motor has low winding inductance as well as low resistance - this allows high PWM rates (above the step rate).
The high performance motors are principally used in CNC positioning systems to give both high speed and high-torque, sounds rather overkill for opening a drawer.
