How to drive a 5 volt/4 amp Stepper motor?

[HarveyH42]

I've got a pair of huge stepper (about 8 lbs). Actually, should have a third one, but haven't seen it in years. Just pulled the one in the pictures, maybe pull the other one a little later today.

They are 6 wire, so unipolar I'd guess. Just curious if these are going to be difficult/expensive to use for something. Don't know where to find a 5v/4amp supply, or what parts I'd need to handle that kind of current. 120 oz/inch sounds like a lot of torque.

Would battery power be practical, seems like a huge draw. Think these could move one hell of a robor, wonder how much weight they could handle on wheels...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Well to get more speed and torque out of them you need to feed them with more than 5V - probably 24V or 48V with current limiting or PWM?.

Could be fun though?.

 

[jpanhalt]

Ther are several CNC forums on the web that are worth checking. You may also want to look at: https://www.hobbycnc.com/

John

 

[Papabravo]

I've got a pair of huge stepper (about 8 lbs). Actually, should have a third one, but haven't seen it in years. Just pulled the one in the pictures, maybe pull the other one a little later today.

They are 6 wire, so unipolar I'd guess. Just curious if these are going to be difficult/expensive to use for something. Don't know where to find a 5v/4amp supply, or what parts I'd need to handle that kind of current. 120 oz/inch sounds like a lot of torque.

Would battery power be practical, seems like a huge draw. Think these could move one hell of a robor, wonder how much weight they could handle on wheels...

I think that is the voltage and current in one phase. So with two phases on at one time that's 8 Amps per motor. TIP33C and TIP34C power transistors should handle that load OK.

 

[HarveyH42]

Think I might have those transistors. Going to take some looking, probably quicker to buy some. Been throwing power transistors in a box for years, never bothered to sort (seldom use them).

Can't seem to find any documentation for these motors. Wondering if they were a custom part for IBM (haven't search for the IBM part number yet). Anyway, should have mentioned that these came out of some printers I got from work, when they upgraded to laser printers. They've been sitting around outside for a long time, maybe 10 years or so. Figured it was time to get rid of them. I totally stripped one down back when I first got them, but it was a pain in the ass, almost all screws were slothead, and tough to break free. Figure on just pulling some of the more exotic parts, and drag the carcas out in the back alley, figure somebody will haul them off eventually.

 

[Papabravo]

They look like SLO-SYN motors from Superior Electric. Why do you think IBM had soemthing to do with them?
HS50L-1046J is the part number.

Oh... I see it there is an IBM in the number underneath the part number. Just a coincidence.

 

[HarveyH42]

They look like SLO-SYN motors from Superior Electric. Why do you think IBM had soemthing to do with them?
HS50L-1046J is the part number.

Oh... I see it there is an IBM in the number underneath the part number. Just a coincidence.

These came out of some very large IBM 4245 T20 printers. Just dug out the service manuals last night, never really looked at them since was going to salvage parts.

 

[HarveyH42]

Just found the motor in the service manual, got the wiring. Also, with any luck might be a driver board for it. This couldn't be so simple, but then again the manuals are dated 1986...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

All you need is 4 NPN transistors to drive it, probably power darlingtons to give enough gain - and a PIC to drive them.

 

[HarveyH42]

All you need is 4 NPN transistors to drive it, probably power darlingtons to give enough gain - and a PIC to drive them.

Why won't an AVR micro work? Yeah, I figured I'd have to dig out the power transistor for this. If I can locate the driver board, I'll have the right parts on hand (probably do already). Might even be able to use the board as is, rather than messing around. The 4 amps is way more than what I'm use to working with, little concerned about fire and electric shock. Won't stop me, just proceed with caution.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Why won't an AVR micro work?

An AVR would be fine, as I'm sure you already know?

 

[things]

5v at 4amps wont shock you, unless you want it to!