Check if Motor Driver is working

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

I'm new to arduino. I connected a motor driver (ULN2003) to a 5V Stepper Motor.

I used the sample code from the Arduino program and it worked perfectly fine this morning (Motor and driver was lighting up)

Now I tried reconnecting everything to the way it was this morning to retest the motor and nothing was lighting up and the motor was not moving at all.

Is there a way to troubleshoot a driver motor? I troubleshooted the stepper motor by inserting a led to the connections of the motor to see if the led glowed.

In the end, I believe that the stepper motor is still functional, and something is wrong with motor driver.

Stepper.png
Stepper.png1600×835 169 KB

2

What I'm thinking is.... the motor driver is NOT meant to get its power supply from the Arduino.

Using the arduino's supply to power a motor is like trying to start up a car motor with an 'AA' battery.

Maybe if your motor uses relatively low amount of power, then your circuit might still work. But probably better off supplying your ULN2003 from a supply that is not from your Arduino.

3

If you continue to power a motor with the Arduino you will damage the Arduino.
.

4

LarryD:
If you continue to power a motor with the Arduino you will damage the Arduino.
.

why is that?

5

You might damage the 5 volt regulator then who knows what. . . .
.

6

EmikoM:
why is that?

The 5v output from an Arduino cannot provide enough current to drive a motor. If you try to draw too much current the 5v will fall and cause the Arduino to behave erratically. And you may overload and damage the Arduino's voltage regulator.

...R

7

A danger is inductive voltage spikes or back-EMF from the motor overwhelming the decoupling capacitance
and frying the board.

Keep logic and motor supplies nice and separate for a reliable system.