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Anybody know how to wire up a step motor??

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linuxglobal

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I have this switch that i want to use for a step motor.

I know this circuit board is used to control 2 step motors.

Anybody know what circuit i need to get this going, its hooked up to 4 pins that are currently empty. It seems to have 3 steps, low med and high. These positions need to be fixed.

Im assuming the part im missing is some sort of signal generator.
**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

the little chip would go in the amber marked holes. I dont know if its a chip or generator. The plug pins that are used are 1,2,3,8. If that means anything LOL

Any help would be greatly appreiciated.
 
linuxglobal said:
they have 3 prongs. This is for a headlight levelling motor. I thin they are all step motors.

I think you are wrong! - steppers don't have three connections, and it wouldn't be a very good choice for setting headlights, it's far more likely to be somekind of DC motor with feedback.
 
linuxglobal said:
oo ok..

so do you know how to wire a 3 wire dc motor??

it needs to have 3 settings to control the headlight elevation.

It depends entirely on how it's done, there's got to be some electronics inside the motor assembly, we've no way of guessing what it might be.
 
well this is the motor im dealing with. There are no electronics inside of it that i can see. Just the reduction gears.

**broken link removed**

all i know is it has 3 wires, and im pretty sure theres nothing inside of it.
The controller is in the car.

Have you wired these before??

BTW hard drives have step motors with 3 wires.... most headlight motors have 4 -5 wires, but these manual ones have 3.

Any ideas?
 
linuxglobal said:
BTW hard drives have step motors with 3 wires....

Hard drives don't have stepper motors at all, they use a brushless DC motor for spinning the platter, and a simple coil to move the head, rather like a voice coil in a speaker.

A bipolar stepper motor has four wires (two for each coil) and a unipolar one has six wires (two coils with centre taps), although two may be joined together giving five wires.

With three wires I can only imagine that two are for power to the motor, and the third is some kind of feedback signal? - does the motor come to pieces at all?.
 
not sure. Im still waiting to receive them. They are from the UK. Ordered them over the weekend.

The seller just gave me the 3 wire description.

What about servos... like r/c stuff. They use 3 wires. 2 are constant + / - power and one is the signal.

Those have an internal control board and such.

Its probably a servo more than anything (my levelling motors that is).

are servos easy to wire? i could even use R/C ones HEHE... i just dont know how to reproduce the signal to that third wire.
 
linuxglobal said:
not sure. Im still waiting to receive them. They are from the UK. Ordered them over the weekend.

The seller just gave me the 3 wire description.

What about servos... like r/c stuff. They use 3 wires. 2 are constant + / - power and one is the signal.

Those have an internal control board and such.

Its probably a servo more than anything (my levelling motors that is).

are servos easy to wire? i could even use R/C ones HEHE... i just dont know how to reproduce the signal to that third wire.

It's easy to generate the pulses required, a couple of 555's is all you need, or even just one - google for "555 servo tester". But you first need to find out what they actually are - the ones on my car work from simple UP and DOWN buttons on the dashboard, with the position indicated on the LCD display - but I've no idea what type of motors they use?.
 
are your headlights HID???

it sounds like a step motor.

My switch OEm comes with just 3 settings, its not variable, just low legal and high. So it hard to say...

ill try out the 555 tested and post more pics when i get them.

Thanks for your help

BTW if ur levelling system standalone??
 
i found this

**broken link removed**

its 4-6 V...

so how would one make this circuit operate at 3 levels? i see a + lead and thats it. Other than that theres no other input to the circuit... sorry im a newb to this stuff. if anyone can chime in that would be great.

Plus i dunno if the motors are 6 or 12V.
i have the check when i get them.
 
linuxglobal said:
are your headlights HID???

No!.

it sounds like a step motor.

Do you have a stepper motor fetish?, it doesn't sound like a stepper to me.

BTW, the car is a Mk2 Fiat Punto.

My switch OEm comes with just 3 settings, its not variable, just low legal and high. So it hard to say...

ill try out the 555 tested and post more pics when i get them.

Unless you're sure that's what it needs, I wouldn't bother blindly trying it?.

BTW if ur levelling system standalone??

What do you mean by that?, in the car it's part of the dashboard electronics, and is displayed on the LCD for the computer - I've never seen the actual actuators.
 
LOL stepper motor fetish.. lovin it.

Im just terrified of them LOL... and it seems like they dominate the auto industry.

Take a look at these motors. I know these are steppers.

im part of an hid community (www.hidplanet.com) and this is an ongoing issue that we havent been able to solve. cars in the US are not required to have leveller systems.

we havent been able to figure out how they work yet. All cars have this bcm (body control modele) under the headlight for each sides motors. Its pretty complex to get auto levelling to work, almost impossible.

However manual levelling seems to be easier.

I have to wait and see how these motors work

Thanks
Ciprian
 
linuxglobal said:
LOL stepper motor fetish.. lovin it.

Im just terrified of them LOL... and it seems like they dominate the auto industry.

Take a look at these motors. I know these are steppers.

There wasn't any link?, but I wouldn't really expect to see steppers often in cars, they are too expensive, too low powered, and don't provide absolute positioning. If you're adding extra hardware to provide positional data back from the motor, you may as well use a cheaper, higher power, DC motor in the first place, in a simple feedback (servo) system.
 
o sorry about that...

BTW each headlight goes for about 1000$ from the dealer LOL...

check out this site...

**broken link removed**

the afs are definetly steppers and some VAC are also stepper. I dont care if its stepper or not. Just whatever is easiet to wire up to have 3 position levels.
 
linuxglobal said:
o sorry about that...

BTW each headlight goes for about 1000$ from the dealer LOL...

check out this site...

**broken link removed**

the afs are definetly steppers and some VAC are also stepper. I dont care if its stepper or not. Just whatever is easiet to wire up to have 3 position levels.

Two are shown there, the first (manual one) is a DC motor, the second (automatic) is a stepper.

But again, the problem is knowing the absolute position of the motor, a stepper on it's own doesn't provide that information, and nor does a DC motor - so you need to know how that is arranged on those motors.
 
u lost me at arranged at the motor. You mean the location of the motor?

I know step motors do not have any set limit.

Is there a way to make a step motor (or DC if easier) to run between certain set intervals?

The thing is i dont need it to be endlessly variable, because i know you could use a DC motor with 2 switches to reverse the current and have it go up and down, but your headlights would be mis aimed since no end parameters or start for that matter would be set.

Thats the biggest problem of it all i guess.
 
linuxglobal said:
u lost me at arranged at the motor. You mean the location of the motor?

No, where the motor is actually turned to, or in other words, where your lights are pointing.

I know step motors do not have any set limit.

Is there a way to make a step motor (or DC if easier) to run between certain set intervals?

Again, you need some positional feedback, a stepper can move a precise distance in either direction, but if you don't know where it was in the first place it doesn't help much. A DC motor is even worse, because you don't know where it was either, and you can't move precise distances.

A DC servo usually uses a potentiometer for the feedback, so the control system moves the motor until the potentiometer gives the reading you want.

The thing is i dont need it to be endlessly variable, because i know you could use a DC motor with 2 switches to reverse the current and have it go up and down, but your headlights would be mis aimed since no end parameters or start for that matter would be set.

Thats the biggest problem of it all i guess.

YES!.
 
so the servo would be the best.... ?

they make 12V servos somewhere?

I like how my r/c servos work, they have a fine tune knob, and a multi variable range for steering and throttle.

So i think im gonna follow that pathway.

Now how could i make a controller similar to that of an r/c car?? Maybe a fine tune pot as well? I think my headlight motors are servos since they are really loud on cars that i have seen them, its more like a huge buzz and it moves continuously.

BTW the motors have a little circuit board. I saw it is some pics when i was searching for the motors.

Therefore it must be a DC servo.

so how do i wire that 555 circuit bot be variable. ? i want bo aim both headlights at the same time ,,, but maybe have a separate pot switch to fine tune them in case one motor is not aligned in line with the other, would one 555 circuit be able to do this ,,, or 2 lets say.

Im not sure how to wire them up, but you know what i want, in the case of the servo i would like to have it variable like an r/c steering linkage.

its all over the place, Im sorry. BUt you get the big picture.

so i need a 12V servo controller that is variable.

Thank you so much for your help. Youve helped me figure out this little dilemma.
 

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