Stepper Motor Questions

Hey guys, I've just bought a stepper motor from RadioShack and I've been wondering if there's a way to use without a integrated circuit. All tutorials and stuff I've seen use some kind of device between the motor and Arduino. Do somebody know about how to connect it directly to Arduino?? Thanks, and, If you have other questions, leave them here.

Without anything in between, you would be supplying the motor's power from an Arduino digital pin. Those ICs as drivers, use the digital IO from a uC as the signals to switch the power on the "other side" of the chip to the motor.

You can't drive a stepper motor directly from an Arduino without some electronics in between to convert the low power from the Arduino to the high power needed by the motor. If you try you will probably damage the Arduino.

Use a proper stepper motor driver board that is suitable for your motor - the Pololu A4988 is an example but you haven't given details of your motor and it may not be suitable.

It is possible to control a stepper motor with DC motor driver boards that use L293/L298 chips but they are more trouble to program and not nearly as capable as a proper stepper driver board.

...R