I want to connect my stepper motor (has 4 wires coming out) to my arduino shield (Adafruit motor shield Overview | Adafruit Motor Shield | Adafruit Learning System) and to my arduino uno. My arduino shield has 5 input pins so I don't know how to connect the 4 output wires of the bipolar stepper motor to a 5 pin input on the motor shield.
Also, I have a bluetooth module connected to my arduino uno so I cannot simply put my motor shield onto the arduino uno like a jigsaw because there are wires coming out of some pins on my arduino uno. How can I connect my arduino uno to the motor shield? What pins should I connect (e.g. power) ?
On the Adafruit product page that you linked, there is an extensive description for how to connect the motor to the motor shield. Have you read it? If not, I suggest you do that and then post if you have questions.
Ok Thanks for the reply. I connected my motor to the arduino and tested it and it works but the motor keeps going forward and backward. How can I make it to go only forward?
If a stepper looses direction it's usually because only ONE PHASE is working. Re-Check your wiring and also your code. You cannot just give each winding the same pulse. The pulses for a stepper need to be phase shifted by 90 degrees.
| | PHASE "A"
__| | PHASE "B"
To go one direction, B needs to lag A, to go the other, A needs to lag B.
Also make sure you have paired your wires correctly. They should be a very low resistance such as a few ohms.
hey thanks so much! I know what you're saying but I can't figure out which pair of wires are together and which are not. I have 4 wires coming out of the motor and I'm supposed to connect 1 pair to 2 pin inputs and the other pair to another 2 pin inputs. How can I find out which wires are pairs ?
Perfect I figured it out thanks to you! I measured the resistance and one pair was about 10 ohms and the other pair was also about 10 ohms. These were the pairs apparently, and the other combinations measured infinite ohms so they were not pairs.
Can someone please help me connect an external power supply to the adafruit board? They dont mention in the document how to do that...they just connect a power supply to the EXT_PWR ports but does the polarity matter? Also, should I remove the yellow 5V jumper next to it?
"If you would like to have the Arduino powered off of USB and the motors powered off of a DC power supply, plug in the USB cable. Then connect the motor supply to the PWR_EXT block on the shield. Do not place the jumper on the shield. This is a suggested method of powering your motor project
(If you have a Diecimila Arduino, don't forget to set the Arduino power jumper to USB. If you have a Diecimila, you can alternately do the following: plug the DC power supply into the Arduino, and place the jumper on the motor shield.)"
So are they saying for me to put my motor power supply - and + terminals to EXT_PWR and remove the yellow jumper on the shield (also, its the only jumper on the shield)?
