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Stepper motor driver

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TheLostAmish

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Hello folks,
I am trying to build a stepper motor driver according to these plans:

Easy to build CNC Mill Stepper Motor and Driver circuits - Viewing Comments 1-100

I have managed to build one circuit for the driver but I can not seem to get it to work. I have a 12 volt supply hooked up to it. After running it through a 1k resistor, I then have it hooked up to the capacitor and zener diode. My problem is that I'm only getting around 1.7 volts after it hits the zener diode and capacitor. I'm pretty sure its supposed to be 6.2 volts (If you haven't noticed by now, I still have a lot to learn about electronics.) Any ideas as to why I'm getting such a low voltage. Short circuit maybe? Thanks
 
I just ran some tests and found out that if I disconnect power from the CD4516 IC, the power jumps up to 6.09v. I checked all of the wiring and nothing seems to be short circuited. Is it possible that the IC is damaged?
 
I just ran some tests and found out that if I disconnect power from the CD4516 IC, the power jumps up to 6.09v. I checked all of the wiring and nothing seems to be short circuited. Is it possible that the IC is damaged?

hi,
Its possible that the ic is dead.

Have you checked that the 1K in series with the 6.2V zener is the right value.?
 
I used the DMM to check the resistance of the resistor, which turned out to be 1k. When I disconnect the wire powers the 4516 from the rest of the circuit, the voltage jumps to a hair above 6v, even with the other chip and motors connected. Would a dead IC, cause the voltage to drop from 6v to 1.7v?

If the IC did die, do you think it was DOA or something I broke while soldering. I'm not to sure as to how reliable the chips are once they are heated up.
 
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It's easy, don't heat them up =) You're only supposed to heat the lead of the chip keep soldering times as short as possible and allow each joint to fully cool before you move on to the next one. You can use an aluminum plate on chips that are sensitive to heat. My cheap radio shack soldering iron came with a tiny little spring loaded aluminum clip for things like transistors and long leaded components, you attach the clip to the lead close to the IC and it shunts the heat to the clip instead of the IC when the lead heats up.
 
Well I just replaced the chip, and tested the voltage. It has jumped up to 5.9v now which sounds about right. Unfortunately I can't test out the motor because I have to leave for work now. Thanks for the help folks!
 
I just tried it out and the stepper motor still doesn't turn. *sigh*

Whenever I connect the driver to my computer via the parallel port, the voltage on my DMM just reads 1. Is this normal? If not, is it possibly a software issue?

It was in fact a software issue. The motor works flawlessly! :-D
 
Last edited:
Check your fets.
 
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