Stepper Motor Identification

NWUpgrades

This may not be the right place to ask this, but I thought since I will be using my motors with a BS2 stamp I would give it a shot.

I rcently purchased a bunch of stepper motors that are both bi and unipolar. I have no idea which wire goes where. Is there a way to test the wires to determine which ones are power and ground? If I can figure that out, I will hopefully be able to determine which ones are for step and·which·are for direction. Thanks for your help.

Franklin

Stepper motors don't have 'step' and 'direction' They usually consist of two coils or two center tapped coils that you energize in a pattern to get movement. if you have four wires there will be resistance between pairs and those are the coil leads. search wiki stepper for more info.

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- Stephen

NWUpgrades

If they do not have "step" and "Direction" then why is it mentioned in this article from piclist.com? I was always of the understnding that was the difference in stepper and DC motors. This is a paragraph from piclist.com

Once you know which wire (s) is(are) the common, you can find the order of the phases with a stepper controller or a battery. If you can connect it to a controller and provide direction and step signals continuously, the motor will either turn, or shake. If it shakes, swap one of the A wires with one of the B wires. If it turns in the wrong direction, swap the two A wires. If your wires are labeled A, B, C, D rather than A+, A-, B+, B-, that should read: If the motor steps back and forth, swap B & C. If it runs backwards, swap A & B. {Thanks to Steve Baldmin or TLA Microsystems Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand}

Franklin

That paragraph is correct.

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- Stephen