wire up standard steppers as regular motors ?

 comp.robotics.misc    Post an article   get this group's latest topics as an RSS feed add this group's latest topics to your My MSN content add this group's latest topics to your My Yahoo content
Subject Author Date
wire up standard steppers as regular motors ? pogo 04-02-2008
Posted by pogo on April 2, 2008, 8:02 pm
Please log in for more thread options
This ought to be good for some laughs from a few of you, but I am serious in
asking the question:

Is there a way to wire up standard stepper (4, 5, or 6 wire) motors so they can
be driven forward/backward like a "normal" DC
motor without a stepper-specific driver ? My nebulous goal in asking this is to
minimize the number of gizmos in my junk box for
building bots: having one kind of motors that can be used 2 different ways - by
upgrading the electronics to drive them later.

Thanks for any help ... and enjoy the chuckles ! :-)
JCDeen


Posted by on April 2, 2008, 8:13 pm
Please log in for more thread options
On Apr 2, 5:02=A0pm, "pogo"
> This ought to be good for some laughs from a few of you, but I am serious =
in asking the question:
>
> Is there a way to wire up standard stepper (4, 5, or 6 wire) motors so the=
y can be driven forward/backward like a "normal" DC
> motor without a stepper-specific driver ?

Noway...

You can wire them up as steppers with drivers, and have 2 inputs:
1-direction (0=3Dfd, 1=3Dbk)
2-on/off


Posted by BobH on April 2, 2008, 8:54 pm
Please log in for more thread options
pogo wrote:
> Is there a way to wire up standard stepper (4, 5, or 6 wire) motors so
> they can be driven forward/backward like a "normal" DC motor without a
> stepper-specific driver ? My nebulous goal in asking this is to minimize
> the number of gizmos in my junk box for building bots: having one kind
> of motors that can be used 2 different ways - by upgrading the
> electronics to drive them later.

Not with DC. You can use a step clock source (like a 555) feeding a
driver of some sort and wind up with something that does not require a
processor to run, but the driver board is not optional with DC on a step
motor.

You might and that is a definite maybe, get a step motor to run on AC
with a transformer and a capacitor or two, but it would be fixed speed
(slow), very quirky and probably take a good bit of fooling with.

With a DC motor, a processor, driver and a shaft position encoder, you
can make them behave a little like a step motor, in that you can direct
them to a specific position. Generally they are better than steppers for
motion control.

Good Luck,
Bob

Posted by pogo on April 3, 2008, 3:30 am
Please log in for more thread options

> pogo wrote:
>> Is there a way to wire up standard stepper (4, 5, or 6 wire) motors so
>> they can be driven forward/backward like a "normal" DC motor without a
>> stepper-specific driver ? My nebulous goal in asking this is to minimize
>> the number of gizmos in my junk box for building bots: having one kind
>> of motors that can be used 2 different ways - by upgrading the
>> electronics to drive them later.
>
> Not with DC. You can use a step clock source (like a 555) feeding a
> driver of some sort and wind up with something that does not require a
> processor to run, but the driver board is not optional with DC on a step
> motor.
>
> You might and that is a definite maybe, get a step motor to run on AC
> with a transformer and a capacitor or two, but it would be fixed speed
> (slow), very quirky and probably take a good bit of fooling with.
>
> With a DC motor, a processor, driver and a shaft position encoder, you
> can make them behave a little like a step motor, in that you can direct
> them to a specific position. Generally they are better than steppers for
> motion control.
>
> Good Luck,
> Bob

Yeah sounds like more trouble than its worth -- which is what I suspected. But
still interesting to think about ...

Posted by on April 3, 2008, 11:05 am
Please log in for more thread options
On Thu, 3 Apr 2008, pogo wrote:
>> pogo wrote:
>>> Is there a way to wire up standard stepper (4, 5, or 6 wire) motors so
>>> they can be driven forward/backward like a "normal" DC motor without a
>>> stepper-specific driver ? My nebulous goal in asking this is to minimize
>>> the number of gizmos in my junk box for building bots: having one kind of
>>> motors that can be used 2 different ways - by upgrading the electronics to
>>> drive them later.
>>
>> Not with DC. You can use a step clock source (like a 555) feeding a driver
>> of some sort and wind up with something that does not require a processor
>> to run, but the driver board is not optional with DC on a step motor.
>>
>> You might and that is a definite maybe, get a step motor to run on AC with
>> a transformer and a capacitor or two, but it would be fixed speed (slow),
>> very quirky and probably take a good bit of fooling with.
>>
>> With a DC motor, a processor, driver and a shaft position encoder, you can
>> make them behave a little like a step motor, in that you can direct them to
>> a specific position. Generally they are better than steppers for motion
>> control.
>>
>> Good Luck,
>> Bob
>
> Yeah sounds like more trouble than its worth -- which is what I suspected.
> But still interesting to think about ...
>

Actually, during the sporge attack, I posted to Gordon's blog site about
wanting to drive a hard drive BLDC spindle motor, a similar problem to
what you propose if I'm not mistaken, and was actively encouraged to drop
the idea, as being not worth the effort.

Still, I'd love to obtain a small and simple circuit which could spin
those babies under s/w control 8-).

Cheers,
Rob.
---- Posted via Pronews.com - Premium Corporate Usenet News Provider ----
http://www.pronews.com offers corporate packages that have access to 100,000+
newsgroups

Similar ThreadsPosted
steppers and DC motors as cheapo encoders ? April 4, 2008, 6:26 pm
hacked steppers, servos, DC motors into something else ? April 4, 2008, 6:34 pm
do they make servo motors that are the same sizes as a dc standard motor? February 10, 2007, 11:45 am
stepper or servo motors that are the same size of a standard dc motor? February 10, 2007, 12:25 pm
flexible wire that becomes ridged muscle wire? January 30, 2006, 3:48 pm
precision according to regular afternoon August 18, 2007, 1:20 am
standard as memory August 14, 2007, 5:40 pm
windshield wiper motors for robot drive motors ? November 28, 2005, 1:14 am
using standard servos with LEGO parts? October 6, 2006, 10:33 am
pound directs about the standard fibre August 22, 2007, 3:16 am

The site map in XML format XML site map
other useful resources:
Official Robosapien Website
Lego Mindstorms Website

Contact Us | Privacy Policy