Hello! New here so Introduction and question...

Hello!

I have just found this place and it looks like a good place to further my Knowledge and maybe pass something on to you. I am not sure what I will be able to contribute yet but you never know My real name is Ralph and I live in London, England with my wife Sue. I have been interested in electronics since I was a teenager. I usually try to build stuff that is used in my other interests. Over the years this has included automotive electrics, audio and various model-making projects. Currently I am experimenting with microprocessors to control low voltage lighting and motors for use in model railways and Meccano (Erector) models. You can see my workshop and catch up with what I have been up to lately HERE. After years of just building published projects I am now studying the basics and intend to master designing and building my own projects.

Although I have been dabbling for years, my technical knowledge is fairly small. I am hoping that I can learn a lot from reading this forum and joining in where I can. I have just bought an Arduino Uno and managed to get it to flash a LED. Now, this may not be an earth-shattering achievement but I did manage to write my own little programme and for me this is the first step on the ladder.

Now for my first question...



I now have some stepper motors on my workbench and am puzzled as to how to work out what wire is what as they are all blue! I think the centre one is V+ and the outside pairs are the phase pairs but I don't know how to confirm which is which. Any help would be appreciated.

Ralph

 

Hello Ralph*,

I don't know an awful lot about stepper motors either, but I see at least the one with the worm drive has a label on it. Try doing a google search for the manufacturer and part number and include the word "datasheet". I'll bet that something useful comes up, either a connection diagram or, even better, a reference circuit!
This technique works wonders for many, many electronic parts.


*I'm fairly new here too

 

Hi P-M,

Thanks for your reply, I do have the data sheet for the motor (found, as you say by Goggling the reference number - PM55L-048) but it doesn't show the wiring

Ralph

 

The Wikipedia article section on two-phase unipolar stepper motors should help. It explains the phase wiring and methods for identifying the connections.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor#section_5

 

Or the original stepper motor knowledge source - http://www.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/

 

Thank you for the link, I have seen Mr Jones's work before and have a copy of it. Although it is probably the best piece of information on the web regarding stepper motors it (as far as I can see) does not tell me how to distinguish which wire is which on my specific motor.

I have worked out that the common is in the centre and the two phase pairs are left and right of it but how do I know what order they should be connected to the driver as all the wires are the same colour?

I could go with trial and error but is there a more scientific method or 'Standard' layout I should follow?

Ralph

 

I'm repeating myself since the information apparently was ignored. There is a wiring diagram on Minebea's website.

http://www.eminebea.com/en/engineering_info/rotary/steppingmotor/pm_motor/cat-1/002-09.shtml