I plug in a stepper motor and it heats up pretty good. Is there a reason for that? The stepper works, but that chip becomes a hot. Is that a wiring issue maybe? So why does the stepper work if not wired right?
It probably means that the stepper motor needs more current than the L298d is designed to take. The L298d is suitable for very small stepper motors ony. What are the specifications of your stepper motor?
Most modern stepping motors need a chopping / current limiting driver. Things get hot because they pass too much current. You could try reducing the voltage of the seprate supply you have driving your motor.
The L293 has darlington output stages so will always run hot or very hot, its not the
summit of technology, but it is cheap. The combined high- and low-side drivers will
drop about 2 to 3V depending on load, so you lose considerable motor speed too.
If you want a low resistance motor (windings 0.5 to 10 ohms) to perform well you
need a chopper drive like the infamous A4988 (many others are available) and to run
it from high voltage (24V, 36V, that sort of thing). A chopper drive acts like a buck-
converter and trades voltage for current and also can spin the motor fast as the
high voltage can overcome the back-EMF (which increases with rpm).
If you have a high resistance motor (10 to 100 ohms windings) a dual H-bridge will do
(bipolar) or ULN2803 (unipolar).
Thanks for the replays gents, DC I will start with you, the motor I have does require 24v so that may be an issue. I am using the motor for a robotic arm base. Do you have an alternative motor for a base? One that uses less volts?
There are very few steppers that "require" 24 volts, most will run with far less. The 24 is probably the manufacturer's recommendation for use with a chopper-style motor driver. What IS important is the motor current and the motor winding resistance. If you will kindly tell us what the winding resistance is, or report what is printed on the motor housing, you will probably get more informed help.
The L298 requires a large heat-sink. Something the size of a VW van would do. What sort of heat-sink do you have?