TOPIC #3

: Stepper Motor

OBJECTVES : 1. Explain the basic function of Stepper Motor.

2. Understand the application of Stepper Motor.
4. Design and write a program using PROTEUS 7 ISIS and MPLAB 8.30 C
Langguage.

APPARATUS : MPLAB 8.30 and PROTEUS 7 software.

THEORY

An Overview
Stepper motors were developed in the early 1960s as a low cost alternative to
position servo systems in the emerging computer peripheral industry. The main
advantage of stepper motors is that they can achieve accurate position control
without the requirement for position feedback. In other words, they can run
open-loop, which significantly reduces the cost of a position control system. A
stepper motor converts electronic pulses into proportionate mechanical
movement. Each revolution of the stepper motors shaft is made up of a series of
discrete individual steps. A step is defined as the angular rotation produced by
the output shaft each time the motor receives a step pulse. Each step causes the
shaft to rotate a certain number of degrees. The size of this step is dependent on
the teeth arrangement of the motor, but a common value is 1.8 degrees, or 200
steps per revolution.
Stepper Motors vs. Other Motors
1. Brushless
Stepper motors are brushless. Motors with contact brushes create sparks,
undesirable in certain environments.
2. Holding torque
Stepper motors have very good low speed and holding torque. Stepper motors
are usually rated in terms of their holding torque and can even hold a position (to
a lesser degree) without power applied, using magnetic detent torque.
3. Open-loop positioning
Stepper motors can run open-loop without the need for any kind of encoder to
determine the shaft position. Compared to servos (Closed loop systems- systems
that feed back position information), stepper motors are very easy to control.
The position of the shaft is guaranteed as long as the torque of the motor is
sufficient for the load, under all its operating conditions.

4. Load independent
The rotation speed of a stepper is independent of load, provided it has
sufficient torque to overcome slipping. The higher RPM a stepper motor is driven,
the more torque it needs, so all stepper motors eventually start slipping at some
RPM. Slipping is usually a disaster for steppers, because the position of the shaft
becomes unknown. For this reason, software usually keeps the stepping rate
within a maximum top rate. In applications where a known RPM is needed under
a varying load, steppers can be very handy.

A typical 2-phase unipolar stepper motor

Stepper Motor Characteristics

Stepper motors are constant power devices. As motor speed increases, torque
decreases. The torque curve may be extended by using current limiting drivers
and increasing the driving voltage.
Steppers exhibit more vibration than other motor types, as the discrete step
tends to snap the rotor from one position to another. This vibration can become
very bad at some speeds and can cause the motor to lose torque. The effect can
be mitigated by accelerating quickly through the problem speed range,
physically damping the system, or using a micro-stepping driver. Motors with a
greater number of phases also exhibit smoother operation than those with fewer
phases.

Stepper Motor Ratings and Specifications

Stepper motors nameplates typically give only the winding current and
occasionally the voltage and winding resistance. The rated voltage will produce
the rated winding current at DC: but this is mostly a meaningless rating, as all
modern drivers are current limiting and the drive voltages greatly exceed the
motor rated voltage.

A steppers low speed torque will vary directly with current. How quickly the
torque falls off at faster speeds depends on the winding inductance and the drive
circuitry it is attached to, especially the driving voltage.
Steppers should be sized according to published torque curve, which is specified
by the manufacturer at particular drive voltages and/or using their own drive
circuitry. It is not guaranteed that you will achieve the same performance given
different drive circuitry, so the pair should be chosen with great care.

Usually the basic specifications can be found on the nameplate

Fundamentals of Operation
Stepper motors operate differently from normal DC motors, which rotate when
voltage is applied to their terminals. Stepper motors, on the other hand,
effectively have multiple toothed electromagnets arranged around a central
gear-shaped piece of iron. The electromagnets are energized by an external
control circuit, such as a micro controller. To make the motor shaft turn, first one
electromagnet is given power, which makes the gears teeth magnetically
attracted to the electromagnets teeth. When the gears teeth are thus aligned to
the first electromagnet, they are slightly offset from the next electromagnet. So,
when the next electromagnet is turned on and the first is turned off, the gear
rotates slightly to align with the next one, and from there the process is
repeated. Each of those slight rotations is called a step, with an integral
(complete number) number of steps making a full rotation. In that way, the
motor can be turned by a precise angle.
Types of Stepper Motor
Stepper motors may be classified by their motor construction, drive topology,
and stepping pattern. There are three main types of stepper motor construction.

They differ in terms of construction based on the use of permanent magnets

and/or iron rotors with laminated steel stators. These include:
1. Permanent Magnet Stepper
2. Hybrid Synchronous Stepper
3. Variable Reluctance Stepper
Permanent magnet stepper motors are inexpensive and have a large stepping
angle of 7.5 to 18. Permanent magnet stepper motors are often used in
inexpensive consumer products. Hybrid stepper motors are a bit more expensive
and have stepping angles of 1.8 or 0.9. Hybrid stepper motors are predominant
in industrial motion control applications. Variable reluctance motors typically
have three or five phases and require a different drive topology. Variable
reluctance stepper motors are not addressed in this reference design. The most
common type of stepper motor construction used for industrial motion control is
the hybrid permanent magnet motor.
Two-Phase Stepper Motors
Stepper motors also come in different number of phases. We will only discuss
two-phase stepper motors in details in this article as it is most commonly used.
There are two basic winding arrangements for the electromagnetic coils in a twophase stepper motor: bipolar and unipolar.
Unipolar Motors
A unipolar stepper motor has logically two windings per phase, one for each
direction of magnetic field. Since in this arrangement a magnetic pole can be
reversed without switching the direction of current, the commutation circuit can
be made very simple (eg. a single transistor) for each winding. Typically, given a
phase, one end of each winding is made common: giving three leads per phase
and six leads for a typical two phase motor. Often, these two phase commons are
internally joined, so the motor has only five leads.
A microcontroller or stepper motor controller can be used to activate the drive
transistors in the right order, and this ease of operation makes unipolar motors
popular with hobbyists; they are probably the cheapest way to get precise
angular movements.

Unipolar stepper motor coils

For the experimenter, one way to distinguish common wire from a coil-end wire is
by measuring the resistance. Resistance between common wire and coil-end wire
is always half of what it is between coil-end and coil-end wires. This is due to the
fact that there is actually twice the length of coil between the ends and only half
from center (common wire) to the end. A quick way to determine if the stepper
motor is working is to short circuit every two pairs and try turning the shaft,
whenever a higher than normal resistance is felt, it indicates that the circuit to
the particular winding is closed and that the phase is working.
Unipolar stepper motors with six or eight wires may be driven using bipolar
drivers by leaving the phase commons disconnected, and driving the two
windings of each phase together. It is also possible to use a bipolar driver to
drive only one winding of each phase, leaving half of the windings unused.
Bipolar Motors
Bipolar motors have logically a single winding per phase. The current in a
winding needs to be reversed in order to reverse a magnetic pole, so the driving
circuit must be more complicated, typically with an H-bridge arrangement. There
are two leads per phase, none are common.
Static friction effects using an H-bridge have been observed with certain drive
topologies. Because windings are better utilized, they are more powerful than a
unipolar motor of the same weight.

Bipolar stepper motor coils

Unipolar vs. Bipolar
The torque of the stepper motor is proportional to the magnetic field intensity of
the stator windings. It may be increased only by adding more windings or by
increasing the current. A natural limit against any current increase is the danger
of saturating the iron core. Much more important is the maximum temperature
rise of the motor, due to the power loss in the stator windings. This shows one
advantage of the bipolar circuit, which, compared to unipolar systems, has only
half of the copper resistance because of the double cross section of the wire. The
winding current may be increased by the factor 2 and this produces a direct
proportional affect on the torque. At their power loss limit bipolar motors thus
deliver about 40 % more torque (Figure 5) than unipolar motors built on the
same frame. If a higher torque is not required, one may either reduce the motor

size or the power loss. By comparing Figure 3 and Figure 4, you will notice that a
unipolar stepper can be control using bipolar method by removing the
connection of the common wires.

Bipolar motors driver deliver more torque than unipolar motors.

How Are They Controlled?

Rotation speed and direction of a stepper motor are determined by appropriate
configurations of digital control devices. Major types of digital control devices
are: Stepper Motor Driver, Indexer, and Controller. These devices are employed
as shown in figure below. The controller (eg: computer, PLC-Programmable Logic
Controller or microcontroller) sends commands to the indexer. The indexer
generates step pulses and direction signals for the driver. The driver converts the
indexer command signals into the necessary power to energize the motor
windings. There are numerous types of drivers, with different current/amperage
ratings and construction technology. Not all drivers are suitable to run all motors,
so in designing a stepper motor system the driver selection process is critical.

Figure: Typical stepper motor system

This is one example of stepper motor systems. You can have a system where the
indexer and driver are designed in one single module or any other combinations.
That depends on your application and the stepper motor driver you are using.
Stepper Motor Drive Methods
A stepper motor is a polyphase AC synchronous motor, and it is ideally driven by
sinusoidal current. A full step waveform is a gross approximation of a sinusoid,

and is the reason why the motor exhibits so much vibration. Various drive
techniques have been developed to better approximate a sinusoidal drive
waveform: they are half stepping and microstepping. Please refer to the figure
below for the following discussions.

Figure: Unipolar and bipolar wound stepper motors

Wave drive (1 phase on)

In Wave Drive only one winding is energized at any given time. The stator is
energized according to the sequence X Y !X !Y and the rotor steps from
position 8 2 4 6. For unipolar and bipolar wound motors with the same
winding parameters, this excitation mode would result in the same mechanical
position. The disadvantage of this drive mode is that in the unipolar wound motor
you are only using 25% and in the bipolar motor only 50% of the total motor
winding at any given time. This means that you are not getting the maximum
torque output from the motor.
Full step drive (2 phases on)
In Full Step Drive you are energizing two phases at any given time. The stator is
energized according to the sequence XY !XY !X!Y X!Y and the rotor steps
from position 1 3 5 7. Full step mode results in the same angular
movement as 1 phase on drive but the mechanical position is offset by one half
of a full step. The torque output of the unipolar wound motor is lower than the
bipolar motor (for motors with the same winding parameters) since the unipolar

motor uses only 50% of the available winding while the bipolar motor uses the
entire winding.
Half stepping (1 & 2 phases on)
When half stepping, the drive alternates between two phases on and single
phase on. This increases the angular resolution, but the motor also has less
torque at the half step position (when only single phase is on). This may be
mitigated by increasing the current in the active winding to compensate. The
advantage of half stepping is that the drive electronics need not change to
support it. The stator is energized according to the sequence XY Y !XY !X
!X!Y !Y X!Y X and the rotor steps from position 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8.
Table below describes 3 types of stepping sequences and their relative merits.
The sequence pattern is represented with 4 bits, where a 1 indicates an
energized winding. After the last step in each sequence the sequence repeats.
Stepping backwards through the sequence reverses the direction of the motor.

Table: Excitation sequences for different drive modes

Microstepping (Continuously varying motor currents)
What is commonly referred to as microstepping is actual sine cosine
microstepping in which the winding current approximates a sinusoidal AC
waveform. Sine cosine microstepping is the most common form, but other
waveforms are used. Regardless of the waveform used, as the microsteps
become smaller, motor operation becomes smoother. However, the purpose of
microstepping is not usually to achieve smoothness of motion, but to achieve
higher position resolution. A microstep driver may split a full step into as many
as 256 microsteps. A typical motor may have 200 steps per revolution. Using
such a motor with a 256 microstep controller (also referred to as a divide by
256 controller) results in an angular resolution of 360/(200256) =
0.00703125 or 51200 discrete positions per revolution. However, it should be
noted that such fine resolution is rarely achievable in practice, regardless of the
controller, due to mechanical stiction (portmanteau: static friction) and other
sources of error between the specified and actual positions.
By now you should understand that each stepper motor will have a defined step
angle associated with it (typically 1.8 degree). In figure below, we assume that
this stepper motor has a step angle of 90 degrees. You can see that the different
drive method yields different stepping resolution and speed. At full step, stepper

motor gives the biggest step size, hence fastest rotation speed but lowest
resolution. Higher resolution but slower speed (smaller step size) is the result of
microstepping drive method. Hence the greater the microstepping divisor, the
smaller is the step size.
Microstepping is typically used in applications that require accurate positioning
and a fine resolution over a wide range of speeds.

Figure: Graphical representation of different stepper motor drive methods

Finding the proper wiring sequence
There is no way to know the correct pattern of the wiring sequence from stepper
motor to the driver if the datasheet or users manual of a stepper motor doesnt
mentioned the relation of the coils and the wires according to their colors.
If you are using a bipolar stepper motor with 4 wires, connect the 4 coil wires to
the controller in any pattern. If it doesnt work at first, you only need to try these
2 swaps. You assign any of the four coil-end wires as 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Table: Quick steps to find the proper wiring sequence

It is done when the motor rotates smoothly in either direction. If the motor
rotates in the opposite direction from desired, reverse the wires so that ABCD
would become DCBA.
Most of cd-rom or dvd-rom drives has a bipolar stepper motor, this motor has two
windings and each winding has 2 inputs which means that this type of motor has
4 wires.

This topic shows circuit schematic and C code for controlling the bipolar stepper
motor speed and direction using PIC16F877A microcontroller.
The stepper motor can be controlled in full step mode or half step mode. The full
step mode is a little bit easier than the half step control mode. In this topic the
full step control mode is used. To control the bipolar stepper motor we need two
H-bridge circuits and for that L293D motor driver chip is used, this cheap chip
can work as a dual H-bridge drivers. In the full step control mode always both
windings are energized according to the following two tables where table1 shows
the driving sequence for rotation direction 1:

And the following table shows driving sequence for the other rotation direction: