Hi.
I disassembled an inkjet printer and found three of these babies.
http://hpstuff.no/bilgalleri/IMAG0065.jpg
http://hpstuff.no/bilgalleri/IMAG0065.jpg
http://hpstuff.no/bilgalleri/IMAG0065.jpg
I apologize for the big pictures.

I am familiar with 4, 5 and 5 wire steppers, but this has only three wires. If I remember correctly, I think all of the three motors were grounded to the chassis in the printer. Some guy at school suggested this to be a 3-phase stepper motor, to be driven with three 1/2-H-bridges, but I don't see how to wire and design a driver circuit?

So instead of
1100
0110
0011
1001

then
100
010
001
???

Thank you!

 

It seems like a servo. Are there any markings on it?

[ed]
They do exist:
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/SMT-360/3-WIRE-GEARED-STEPPER-MOTOR/1.html
They may have a single step for printing, line by line, and a form-feed to advance the page quickly.
[/ed]

 

Okay, lets see

These are the only markings
http://hpstuff.no/bilgalleri/IMAG0066.jpg

TYPE 103-5305-0641
127E83391
2.2A 3.75 degrees/step
LOT NO. 06312F (different on all three, not surprised)
SANYO DENKI
Made in Indonesia

 

Here is the drivers for Sanyo Denki 3 wire steppers. It shows patters for control:
http://www.q-tech.hu/pdf/SanyoDenki/3 phase/3ph katalogus.pdf

These are 3phase, 3 wire steppers. They require a controller capable of taking a standard PWM signal and converting into what the 3 phase can understand. It also uses techniques to hold the motor and such. These options are not a effect of the motor, but of the control.
Sanyos Website for their Denki department:
http://www.sanyo-denki.com/Data/Servo/catalogs/F3_ver1.pdf

 

You should not have removed the end of the motor. Alignment is critical to it's proper operation.

Hope you didn't throw out the rest of the printer yet. All of the circuits that were needed to drive the motors are still on board. You just need to figure out where they are.

 

I threw it out many months ago, i regret that now, of course....

Retched: Thank you very much for the information, I will read this thoroughly now that I realize I had a golden opportunity to just pull the driver-electronics straight out of the printer.

 

You could probably use something like an L6234 to drive your motor. They're a 3-phase H-bridge driver for brushless motors.
http://www.st.com/stonline/books/ascii/docs/1107.htm

Mouser stocks them: http://www.mouser.com/Semiconductors/Integrated-Circuits-ICs/_/N-6j73k?Keyword=L6234&FS=True

You will need a control circuit for the driver, of course. It would be easiest to use a microcontroller; as once you built the driver board, just software changes would be necessary.

 

SgtWookie; I seem to have not seen your reply, thank you also for your comment.

I have an additional question about the motors:
When I connect the motors to my 20 volt power supply, the ps say the motor draws 5.6 amps, and the voltage on the display drops to about 8 volts. Is not this very much? Is this the "stall current" of my stepper motor? The coils are energized as discribed in the table in pdf posted above.

Edit: When I look closer at this document
http://www.q-tech.hu/pdf/SanyoDenki/3 phase/3ph katalogus.pdf
I see that my motor is specified as 1.8 A per phase. As I only energize one phase per step, this means I should get a amperage reading of 1.8 when I supply the correct amount of voltage? I reach this value at 5.4 volts. On the graph at page 24 of the pdf it says:
Source voltage: DC24V·Operating current: 1.8A/phase, 2-phase energization (full step)
This is for the model closest to mine. How do they energize two phases at one time? Or am I doing it already? Using the table at page 23. If I, when supplying 20 volts, reach 5.6 amps. Should not this be more like 3.6 amps if energizing 2 phases (if 24 volts, like stated, is the correct voltage)? My power supply is limited to 20 volts.

Edit 2:

You could probably use something like an L6234 to drive your motor. They're a 3-phase H-bridge driver for brushless motors.
http://www.st.com/stonline/books/ascii/docs/1107.htm

Mouser stocks them: http://www.mouser.com/Semiconductors/Integrated-Circuits-ICs/_/N-6j73k?Keyword=L6234&FS=True

You will need a control circuit for the driver, of course. It would be easiest to use a microcontroller; as once you built the driver board, just software changes would be necessary.

I will need two of this L6234 per motor? As they are 3 x 1/2 H-bridge, and I need one bridge per phase. By the way, I am pretty impressed of the specs, 5 amps peak, wow.