Will these boards power larger stepper motors?

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
#1

I found these boards on ebay, and tried to google the crap out of them but i can only find people using them for tiny stepper motors. will they work with the larger stepper motors like the ones found at sparkfun?

Here is the driver: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1pc-ULN2003-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Board-For-Arduino-AVR-AR-M-/360599894974?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53f56dbbbe

Here is the stepper motor: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9238

I would like to save some cash and not have to buy one of these: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10267

Thanks!

#2

No that driver is for unipolar stepping motors only, that motor is a bipolar motor.

See:- http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Motors_3.html For what unipolar motors are all about and http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Workshop/Motors_4.html for bipolar.

#3

I pulled a stepper motor out of a printer i have with me. how would i know which one i have? it says "EM-483" "3x310" "5a" on the bottom of it.

i found a picture of it here: http://hblok.net/blog_pics/epson_printer/em-483_front.jpg

So would the easy driver from sparkfun work? if not the ones on ebay.

#4

There's some info on that motor in this thread: http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,19958.0.html

I think the easystepper ought to handle it - check the winding resistance is the same. What are the dimensions of the motor - similarly sized steppers tend to have roughly the same power (I-squared-R) ratings since often the design is thermally limited.

Although the EasyStepper claims to go upto 0.75A it will run mighty hot at that level from what I can see of the specs - start at a smaller current and work your way up checking the temperatures are sensible.

#5

how would i know which one i have?

Count the number of wires. If you have four it is a bipolar motor and so needs two h-bridg circuits to drive it. If you have five then it is a unipolar motor and each coil can be driven single endedly by pulling it to ground like the eBay driver. If there are more wires you can often wire it up as either.

#6