**Understanding Stepper Motors**

In this experiment, I used a multimeter to verify that red with blue and black with green form a coil. By powering these coils with a lab bench power supply, it was easy to determine which coil pair is positioned where inside the motor. While opposing coils will create the same magnetic polarity, the other two will create the reverse magnetic polarity.

**How Stepper Motors Work**

Firstly, I connected black to VCC and green to ground, creating a South Pole at 0°. This attracted a North polarized tooth, which now aligns with the South Pole. Next, blue connects to VCC and GND, resulting in a North Pole at 45°, which the South polarized teeth will follow. Then, I connected green to VCC and black to GND, creating a South Pole at 90° again, with the reverse polarized teeth following. Finally, by hooking up red to VCC and blue to ground, I created a North Pole at 100 and 35°, which the teeth will once again follow.

**Rotational Steps**

With these four steps, one tooth moved exactly to the location of the next tooth. Multiplying the 50 teeth by four steps gives us a total of 200 steps per rotation, which actually makes sense since the type label gives us a step angle of 1.8° (360° per rotation divided by the 200 steps).

**Driver Circuit**

I created a driver circuit consisting of 4-channel and 4 P-Channel Mosfets to form two H-Bridges and an Arduino to control the gate pairs. An H-Bridge can basically let current flow in either direction through the coil by turning on either the top left and bottom right Mosfets or the top right and bottom left Mosfets.

**Step Motor Advantages**

After connecting the motor and creating a bit of simple code, the four steps were repeated over and over again, which makes the rotor spin perfectly. Because I can exactly control how many steps the rotor should perform, the stepper motor is suitable for positioning applications like 3D printers. Another advantage is that when current flows through the coils in only one way, the rotor does not spin but keeps its position persistent with a so-called holding torque.

**Driver Circuit Advantages**

What I used here is so-called wave driving, in which only one coil is active. There also exists full-step driving, in which both coils are active and thus create a higher torque. Next is half-step driving, which combines all the previous driving states and thus increases the resolution from 200 steps to 400 steps per rotation. This madness then continues to one-fourth step, one-eighth step, and so on, which is also known as microstepping.

**Microstepping with A4988 IC**

In order to implement that, we don't want to use a constant voltage applied to our coils like I did it with my driver instead we need a constant current which we can vary in its strength to create the different steps. An easy solution to this problem is the A4988 microstepping IC. By connecting the setup pins as shown in the schematic, hooking up the MS pins up to 5V to enter the 1/16 step mode, connecting my 12V power source and finally the motor which does nothing yet.

**Completing the Circuit**

What is missing is a circuit that creates a variable frequency Square wave. By using a 555 timer circuit by connecting the outputs to the step pin, the motor rotates one step when other the square wave changes from low to high. Taking a look at the voltage and current of one coil, we can see that the chopped-up voltage creates variable constant current which ultimately forms a sinusoidal shape.

**Advantages of Microstepping**

Everything works fine, and the advantages of microstepping are quite obvious. Not only is the movement of the rotation much smoother, but the loudness of the motor also decreased drastically. Of course, you could also use an Arduino to control the A4988 driver I see, but for now, you already learned quite a bit about stepper motors.

**Conclusion**

I hope this video has been informative and helpful in understanding how stepper motors work. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe! Stay creative, and I will see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enisn't it a pleasure to listen to the melodic sounds of stepper Motors while they're creating a 3D print well not really but why do we use them then I mean a brush DC motor rotates as well and is way quieter so in this video in order to find an answer to that question I will show you how a modern stepper motor works and how easy it is to control one with and without a microcontroller let's get started first off let's inspect the insides of the ster motor that are Salvage from an old 3D printer by simply unscrewing the four screws on the back and applying a bit of force I removed the back which raled a rather commonly known structure of a so-called hybrid synchronous stepper motor there also exist permanent magnets types and variable reluctance types but since the hybrid ones have more advantages and are more common nowadays let's focus on those its removable rotor consists of four permanent magnets with alternating polarity one North and South Pole together from a pole shoe which has exactly 50 teeth per sprockets but the teeth of the pockets of one pole shoe are not aligned perfectly they have an offset which means that if if we look at the front we can see north south north south and so on magnetized teeth this statea of the stepper motor also possesses such teeth but they are not magnetized yet in order to do that the motor consists of eight physically separated coils but since we only have four wires to work with they are basically just two coils which are spread out with the help of a multimeter I asserted that red with blue and black with green form a coil and by powering those with a Lap bench power supply it was pretty easy to declare which coil pair is positioned where inside the motor and while the opposing coils will create the same magnetic polarity the other two will create the reverse magnetic polarity now with those information in mind let's try to experiment and find out how this Motor Works firstly I connect black to VCC and green to ground which creates a South Pole at 0° this attracts a North polarized teeth which now align with the South Pole next Blue connects to VCC and retr ground now we have North Pole at 45° which the South polarized teeth will follow then we connect green to VCC and black to ground this time we have the South Pole at 90° again the reverse polarized te follow and we can move on to the last step by hooking up red to VCC and blue to ground to create a North Pole at 100 and 35° which the thief will once again follow with those four steps one tooth moved exactly to the location of the next tooth and if we multiply the 50 teeth by four steps we get a total of 200 steps per rotation which actually makes sense since the type label gives us a step angle of 1.8 de that is 360° per rotation divided by the 200 steps but because turning on each mechanically is kind of Impractical we need a driver for that I created a rather cruit but functional one which consist of 4 and channel and four P Channel M feds to form two H Bridges and an uino to control the forgate pairs an age Bridge can basically let current flow in either direction through the coil by turning on either the top left and the bottom right M fats or the top right and bottom left M fats after connecting the motor and creating a bit of simple codes the four steps were repeated over and over again which makes the rotor spin perfect and because I can exactly control how many steps the rotor should perform the steeper motor is suitable for positioning applications like 3D printers another Advantage is that when current flows through the coils in only one way the rotor does not spin but it keeps its position persistent with a so-called holding torque which which is sometimes given on the type label along with the required coil current but let's go back to my driver circuit what I used here is so-called wave driving in which only one coil is active there also exists full-step driving in which both coils are active and thus create a higher torque next is halfstep driving which combines all the previous driving states and thus increases the resolution from 200 steps to 400 steps per rotation this madness then continues to one4 steps 1/8 steps 116th steps and so on which is also known as micro stepping but in order to implement that we don't want to use a constant voltage applied to our coils like I did it with my driver instead we need a constant current which we can vary in its strength to create the different steps an easy solution to this problem is this a4988 microing IC which is basically a more advanced H bridge I connected the setup pins like it's shown in the schematic hooked up the MS pins up to 5 volts in order to enter the 116 step modes connected my 12v power source and finally the motor which does nothing yet what is missing is a circuit that creates a variable frequency Square wave like this 555 timer Circuit by connecting the outputs to the step pin the motor rotates one step when other the square wave changes from low to high and if we take a look at the voltage and current of one coil we can see that the chopped up voltage creates variable constant current which ultimately forms a sinal sodial shape at this point everything works fine and the advantages of micro stepping are quite obvious not only is the movement of the rotation much smoother but the loudness of the motor also decreased drastically of course you could also use an alduino to control the a49 88 driver I see but for now you already learned quite a bit about stepper Motors I hope you like this video as always don't forget to like share and subscribe stay creative and I will see you next timeisn't it a pleasure to listen to the melodic sounds of stepper Motors while they're creating a 3D print well not really but why do we use them then I mean a brush DC motor rotates as well and is way quieter so in this video in order to find an answer to that question I will show you how a modern stepper motor works and how easy it is to control one with and without a microcontroller let's get started first off let's inspect the insides of the ster motor that are Salvage from an old 3D printer by simply unscrewing the four screws on the back and applying a bit of force I removed the back which raled a rather commonly known structure of a so-called hybrid synchronous stepper motor there also exist permanent magnets types and variable reluctance types but since the hybrid ones have more advantages and are more common nowadays let's focus on those its removable rotor consists of four permanent magnets with alternating polarity one North and South Pole together from a pole shoe which has exactly 50 teeth per sprockets but the teeth of the pockets of one pole shoe are not aligned perfectly they have an offset which means that if if we look at the front we can see north south north south and so on magnetized teeth this statea of the stepper motor also possesses such teeth but they are not magnetized yet in order to do that the motor consists of eight physically separated coils but since we only have four wires to work with they are basically just two coils which are spread out with the help of a multimeter I asserted that red with blue and black with green form a coil and by powering those with a Lap bench power supply it was pretty easy to declare which coil pair is positioned where inside the motor and while the opposing coils will create the same magnetic polarity the other two will create the reverse magnetic polarity now with those information in mind let's try to experiment and find out how this Motor Works firstly I connect black to VCC and green to ground which creates a South Pole at 0° this attracts a North polarized teeth which now align with the South Pole next Blue connects to VCC and retr ground now we have North Pole at 45° which the South polarized teeth will follow then we connect green to VCC and black to ground this time we have the South Pole at 90° again the reverse polarized te follow and we can move on to the last step by hooking up red to VCC and blue to ground to create a North Pole at 100 and 35° which the thief will once again follow with those four steps one tooth moved exactly to the location of the next tooth and if we multiply the 50 teeth by four steps we get a total of 200 steps per rotation which actually makes sense since the type label gives us a step angle of 1.8 de that is 360° per rotation divided by the 200 steps but because turning on each mechanically is kind of Impractical we need a driver for that I created a rather cruit but functional one which consist of 4 and channel and four P Channel M feds to form two H Bridges and an uino to control the forgate pairs an age Bridge can basically let current flow in either direction through the coil by turning on either the top left and the bottom right M fats or the top right and bottom left M fats after connecting the motor and creating a bit of simple codes the four steps were repeated over and over again which makes the rotor spin perfect and because I can exactly control how many steps the rotor should perform the steeper motor is suitable for positioning applications like 3D printers another Advantage is that when current flows through the coils in only one way the rotor does not spin but it keeps its position persistent with a so-called holding torque which which is sometimes given on the type label along with the required coil current but let's go back to my driver circuit what I used here is so-called wave driving in which only one coil is active there also exists full-step driving in which both coils are active and thus create a higher torque next is halfstep driving which combines all the previous driving states and thus increases the resolution from 200 steps to 400 steps per rotation this madness then continues to one4 steps 1/8 steps 116th steps and so on which is also known as micro stepping but in order to implement that we don't want to use a constant voltage applied to our coils like I did it with my driver instead we need a constant current which we can vary in its strength to create the different steps an easy solution to this problem is this a4988 microing IC which is basically a more advanced H bridge I connected the setup pins like it's shown in the schematic hooked up the MS pins up to 5 volts in order to enter the 116 step modes connected my 12v power source and finally the motor which does nothing yet what is missing is a circuit that creates a variable frequency Square wave like this 555 timer Circuit by connecting the outputs to the step pin the motor rotates one step when other the square wave changes from low to high and if we take a look at the voltage and current of one coil we can see that the chopped up voltage creates variable constant current which ultimately forms a sinal sodial shape at this point everything works fine and the advantages of micro stepping are quite obvious not only is the movement of the rotation much smoother but the loudness of the motor also decreased drastically of course you could also use an alduino to control the a49 88 driver I see but for now you already learned quite a bit about stepper Motors I hope you like this video as always don't forget to like share and subscribe stay creative and I will see you next time