Seeed Studio Motor Shield + 5-Wire stepper motor help.

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hey gang-

I have a project coming up that will require using some stepper motors.
Not something I have really played around with much.. so decided to start messing about before I order any real parts.

I dug out an old Radio Shack 5-wire (hobby) stepper..
https://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/Stepper_Motor_5V_4-Phase_5-Wire_%26_ULN2003_Driver_Board_for_Arduino

From what I gather this is a 'unipolar' stepper motor.

I also dug out an old Seeed Studios Motor Shield v1.2 I believe:

Which states it can drive a stepper motor.. (although specifically states: 4-wire two-phase stepper motor).. where as mine is a 5-wire unipolar one.

I was not clear on how (if even possible) to hook up this 5-wire unipolar stepper motor to a motor shield that only provided a '4' pin connection.

After some searching.. I stumbled on to this thread:
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=74675.0

Which led me to believe it 'might' work..

So using this pinout:

and this diagram:

I connected the stepper wires (orange, yellow, pink, blue to the matching M1/M2 -/+ connectors on the motor shield.

I threw the demo code for the stepper motor found here:

I powered the Seeed Studio Motor Shield from my bench top PSU through the VS/GND screw terminal
I had the +5/VCC jumper on to power the Arduino from the Motor Shield on-board regulator..
Uploaded the code...

and.. nothing.

Well to be clear... not exactly 'nothing' the serial monitor output the correct (timed) message..

and if I held the stepper in my hand.. I felt it 'vibrate'.. and could actually see it move a VERY time amount.

Is the combination of motor shield and stepper? or something I may have done?

I suppose I could rip apart some printers or something.. to see if there some small NEMA stepper motor in there or something?

Thanks.

2

Do you still have the ULN2003 board? The Arduino stepper library will work but you have to get the ONE right combination of wire connections. It's not very hard to roll your own, I have several simple sketches if you want.

3

oh... so my wiring is incorrect your saying?

As for the board...

I'm not sure where you got ULN2003 board from?

I have the Seeed studios Motor Shield.

ie:

Motor Shield V1.0

The Motor Shield is a perfect platform for robotics and mechanical applications. It enables the Arduino to drive two brushed DC motors or one 4-wire two-phase stepper motor. Based on the H-bridge driver Chip L298N motor driver integrated circuit, it requires a 6V to 15V power supply to power the motor and also includes an on-board 5V voltage regulator for powering the main Arduino board. Additional plug and play Grove sensors can be connected to the 13 on-board Grove connectors.

4

dug out an old Radio Shack 5-wire (hobby) stepper..
https://www.geeetech.com/wiki/index.php/Stepper_Motor_5V_4-Phase_5-Wire_%26_ULN2003_Driver_Board_for_Arduino

From here. :slight_smile:

5

Ahh..

I see.. lol

Sorry. that was only in reference to the stepper motor itself.. not the driver portion! :slight_smile:

6

If I am planning on using a NEMA type stepper motor...

is there a preferred driver/chip to be used for these?

Is the ULN2003 board a better choice? (and why?)

Are there drivers that support 2+ steppers?

Thanks!

7

"NEMA" only defines the dimensions of the motor mounting face, does not necessarily mean it's a stepper motor, could be a DC, AC, BLDC motor or a gear reducer. Do you mean a BIPOLAR stepper with (usually) 4 wires?
The older L293 / L298 type boards are not a good choice for low impedance, higher current bipolar motors, Pololu has a good selection of modern design MOSFET stepper drivers.