Stepper Motor Control

This block diagram shows a typical circuit used to drive a unipolar stepper motor.

Find suitable Software, Tools & Training for Stepper Motor Control Application
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Stepper Motor Tutorial

Overview:

The rotor of a permanent magnet stepper motor consists of permanent magnets and the stator has two
pairs of windings. Just as the rotor aligns with one of the stator poles, the second phase is energized. The
two phases alternate on and off and also reverse polarity. There are four steps. One phase lags the other
phase by one step. This is equivalent to one forth of an electrical cycle or 90°. Poles are formed using a
single magnet mounted inline with the rotor axis and two pole pieces with many teeth. The teeth are
staggered to produce many poles. The stator poles of a real stepper motor also have many teeth. The
teeth are arranged so that the two phases are still 90° out of phase.
Key characteristics of the Stepper Motor:

• Easy to position – moves in steps

based on pulses supplied to the stator
windings
• Direction of rotation is changed by
reversing the pulse sequence
• Speed control is by the frequency of
pulses or pulse rate

How it works:

In simplified terms, the rotor of a stepper motor consists of permanent magnets with poles and a stator
with windings. The rotor is constructed using a single magnet mounted in line with the rotor axis and two
pole pieces with many teeth. The teeth are staggered to produce many salient poles.

The stepper motor is easy to position and moves in steps based on pulses supplied to the stator
windings. The direction of rotation is changed by reversing the pulse sequence and speed is controlled by
the frequency of pulses or pulse rate. This animation demonstrates this principle for a stepper motor
using full step commutation. Just as the rotor aligns with one of the stator poles, the second phase is
energized. The two phases alternate on and off, and also reverse polarity. There are four steps. One
phase lags the other phase by one step. This is equivalent to one fourth of an electrical cycle or 90°.
Stepper motors have a high holding torque but they cannot run at high speeds.

Stepper Motor Control

Input: Micro Stepping Details

• Inputs are typically pulses

• Digital communications
• Speed

Control:

• Basic I/O for full-step and

half-step control
• Comparators for over-
current detection
• Capture/Compare/PWM for Each stepper motor will have a defined step angle associated
micro stepping (or half with it. In the above example we can see that with 2 phases, we
stepping) have a step angle of 90 degrees. If we implement some basic
techniques we can improve the resolution of the motor by
Feedback: decreasing the stepping angle.

Increases Step Resolution

• Limit switches for homing
and safety
• Divides a Full Step into sub-steps
Driver
Smoother transitions between steps
• Multiple switches
 (MOSFETs) • Limits noise
• Reduces anti-resonance problems

Maximum torque

• Low step rates

• High step rates

• Stepper Motor Design Flowchart:

Stepper Motor Applications:

Stepper Motor Applications include:

• Idle speed adjust

• Exhaust gas re-circulation
• Duct airflow vanes
• Mirror control
• Telescopes
• Antennas
• Toys