How do i make a stepper motor generator

Jakebob · How do i make a stepper motor generator

Is there any electronic modification such a converter circuit i need to make for a stepper motor generator to supply power, or will it put out smooth dc or ac without any kind of modification.

Jakebob

also, if there is any electronic circuitry required to make these work could someone please supply me with a schematic.

johnreid

here is a good place to start
http://www.indianarog.com/restorerstoolbox.htm#109090135
Basically, you need to get the Stepper motor and then find out which wires are the commons on the Stepper motor. The ones I bought had 6 wires and 2 were commons, I took the model number off of the stepper and did a Google search and found the color code for my specific motors. Then on a small piece of breadboard ( basically circuit board with lots of holes so you can install components on it ) place your 4 rectifier diodes, there is a band marked on them so place them so that the stripe is positioned properly in the circuit, and then attach one of each of the 4 wires to a diode of its own, the other end of the diodes connect together, that is one side of your DC supply, the commons tie together and make the other side of your supply. then atach them to your circuit, be it an LED or whatever.

Jakebob

great, i believe that tomorrow i will dig out a stepper motor and my old oscilloscope and do me some circuit making. i need to find a pulley to go on it though, man i wish i had a lathe.

Mister Occlusion

For pulleys I use either Wilesco or Jensen ones, depending which fit better. Jensen is 3/16 and Wilesco, I think, is a hair smaller (probably a metric thing). I just bore out the Wilesco ones to the proper diameter if the Jensen ones are too big.

I don't have a lathe either, but I bet I could build up a pulley out of a few laminations of K&S brass soldered together, drilled and tapped for a couple grub screws, and then laminate a few brass washers together on one end of it and if necessary chuck the whole thing in a drill press on a bit of spare shaft and turn/file a groove into the washers...

In the end it would be cheaper and easier to mail order some pulleys

Wallace

Ok, without sounding really silly, there is something that I have been wanting to ask

What is the difference between a stepper motor, and just getting a ordinary motor (say out of a RC car or meccano) to run as a generator

<Waiting for obvious answer> .......

Mister Occlusion

A stepper motor is like having two or more regular motors in one package, to give a basic answer (there's more to it, I know).

At the core of it you've got 2 independent coils, with their own leads, rather than the singular coil system in a regular motor.

It just lets you crank out more volts (at the cost of higher engine loading) than a regular motor can.

Also it will yield AC rather than DC current, when used as a generator, which mandates a semiconductor circuit be hooked into the outputs to convert it to DC, if desired.

I'm going to build one, when I have time, that has both an AC and a DC circuit. Just not sure right now how I want to wire it.

Wallace

Thanks very much for that Mark.

Clears it up now

IndianaRog

Wallace, don't be embarrased to ask how a stepper works...heck, I have several and I've even wired the circuits up myself to work beautifully, but I can't quite get my head around WHAT is happening to give AC output, let alone convert it to DC output with a few simple diodes (whatever a diode is!!).

Add steppers to telephones, car radios and the internet...part of my growing list of "gee whiz" technology I enjoy to the fullest without having a clue what makes them tick

Rog

Mister Occlusion

No worries

Wiki has a few good articles on them too.

Ah! Here's the power of positive thinking for you: My parts order from Jensen just got here! Now I've got 2 spare steam domes and thus do not have to take any classic fittings apart for my project

Titan

Stepper motors are usually used where precice position control is required. They will normally have the coils around the outside, insted of on the shaft like the armature of a normal DC motor. Each of these coils is connected to a different set of wires.

Lets say we have a simple motor with four coils around the outside. Energising each coil in turn, 1-2-3-4, will cause exactly 1 revolution, in four steps (hence the term stepper motor) if we repeat this once a second we have one revolution per second or exactly 60 rpm.

Or, if we energise each coil in turn 100 times, and then again 4-3-2-1 100 times, then the motor will do exactly 100 rotations one way, and then exactly 100 revolutions in reverse to bring it and whatever it is driving back to exactly the same starting position. This is the way printers drive the ink carriage, and always get it in the right position to start the new line of print - having used another stepper motor to advance the paper just the right amount for the new line.