A general overview or whatever you can offer is greatly appreciated : Could someone tell me how to solder together a bipolar step motor an make it turn with an arduino microcontroller? If possible, could you tell me how to make the connections without soldering? Ive read a lot of tutorials and datasheets but there are still a lot of things I don't get. I just want to get the thing turning for now. It should be easier to learn this stuff with a working example in front of me. Problem is (and I know this is not the easiest stuff to start off with as a noob but this is all I have to work with, in addition to some light electronics I can get at a shitty nearby radioshack) this is mostly all I have:
Arduino
Bipolar (4 wire) step motor
12 volt Battery
well for soldering you'll at least need an iron/solder..
if non-soldering.. a breadboard and some jumpers (at a minimum)..
(which you can get at your local RatShack)
also doing a searching for motor or steppers..etc.. will yield many diagrams.. however consulting the diagram for YOUR particular model is IMPORTANT... you should follow the diagrams/advice in that sheet first.
Thanks for the reply.
By jumpers do you mean alligator clips?
And by "how" to make the connections, I mean it in the most troublesome way to answer: if I give an image of my arduino and the datasheet for my motor could you tell me how to hook em up. To be frank, I don't know which wires go where.
no.. like these:
so you can make connections from your Arduino to your motor..etc..
might want to get a breadboard too: RadioShack.com Official Site - America's Technology Store
No I couldnt do it for you..
maybe start with posting the motor you have (brand/model...from where..etc).. and a link to a data sheet.
For example, I think this map has pretty much everything I need I. The way of general connections the microcontroller, but the breadboad with the SN driver is confusing me because I don't know what the connections are like underneath tue board. I guess I'm reading it wrong or something. Could someone perhaps edit the image in paint and post it for me?
Thanks again mr cat. I'll have it up tomorrow. But why couldn't you tell me the connections between the motor wires and the micrcontroller pins? If it's because I seem lazy I totally understand. I'll keep researching. but I just have no background in hardware, only a little in programming, so treading the schematics is hard for me, especially when lines cross over eachother.
This image shows how breadboards are wired internally. Hopefully it will help you understand the image you posted earlier.
This site (Grumpy Mike's, a forum member here) is a good resource for all you want.
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Introduction.html
Many members here have web pages with how-to, what and why info.
There is also a load of info right on the Arduino site between Reference, Learning, Playground, etc.
It is good to organize yourself a bunch of bookmarks by category and for some, mark the same site/page in more than one category. Categories can be like Hardware, Software, Market. Then when you see a good link, you have places to mark it that you can find it back again later.
Noob here as well...
I recently went through the same thing. I was going to build a controller with an L298 something like this:
http://www.bristolwatch.com/L298N/L298N_arduino.htm
The local RS didn't have any 298's but they did have a motor shield in stock so I picked one up.
This instructable helped me get several different steppers running:
Hope this helps...