Stepper motor making want to scream!!!

having no luck with a stepper motor (its a 4 pin bipolar)

I did a test for resistance on the motors leads, 1+3, 2+4 both have the same resistance, so are the same coil right?

Using that principle iv attached [out1] to 1 [out2] to 3 [out3] to 2 [out4] to 4

But all that happens is the motor step one step clockwise, and anticlockwise really fast, and get quite hot!

Im using this layout

And here is my breadboard

Humm, why don't you try reversing the wiring on just one of the windings and see if the symptom changes.

Lefty

Gave that a go, in fact i think i tried all 24 Permutations and two different stepper motors last nght (but it was very late so i may have missed one or two)

A method I use to test a stepper is to manually energize coils by hooking it up to a pin header and raking power across the pins wired to the coils.

i think i tried all 24 Permutations

Time to stop guessing and start thinking.

Basically you want the coil energized in the forward or reverse direction or not at all. I am not sure what the library does but I am not surprised you can't get it to work. Try driving the pattern by hand,
see http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Motors_4.html for the three patterns you could use.

think it must have been a trouble with the IC, switched it out and run as a two pin set up with a couple of npn transistors and the motor is stepping fine now.