Hey there. I am interested in restoring this old 1987 broken slot machine, where each slot is powered by a 24v stepper motor.
I am very much a beginner in electronic projects and so have no clue where to start. I’d like to have each motor run at a continuous speed-like a normal 2 wire motor, when activated by a switch(in the arm on the side of the machine).
Is it possible for a 6 wire stepper motor to run normally or would I have to integrate an arduino board w/ code perhaps?
The motors originally were linked to the machine’s logic board full of old rusted drivers and looks terribly confusing.
Please find photos attached.
Thankyou!

 

If you want to run steppers, you need some sort of controller to produce the phase currents. They do not run with just power applied. The different windings need to be driven in a particular pattern to produce rotation.
There are quite a few explanations of steppers around. Here is just one...

There are a few different stepper configurations. Yours probably have 2 center tapped windings. The center tap is connected to the supply voltage and each winding end is switch with a power transistor to 0V. the switching timing determines the speed and direction of the motor.
An Arduino and driver transistors can make it work for you. It could be a good little project to learn about the electronics and coding.

Or this may have some info to help..

Is the original board salvageable, or are you after a new driver?
With the original board, the first thing to do is give it a thorough clean. This can be done with warm water and detergent as long as you fully rinse it well afterwards and dry it completely. Leave it in a warm draft for a couple of days. Make sure the labels stay on the EPROMs. They can be carefully unplugged and stored by pushing the leads into some foam that has foil wrapped around it. Care to not bend leads and it is important to put them back in the same sockets and the same way around too. Make sure no pins get bent and all go into the correct place.

 

Just Google Unipolar Stepper Control!
Max.