Stepper Motors & Controllers

More About Stepper Motors

A stepper motor, which may also be called a step motor, is a brushless, electric motor that takes a full rotation and divides it into many large steps. The position of the of the motor can be controlled without and feedback mechanism, as long as the motor is sized to the appropriate application. Stepper motors function differently compared to DC brush motors, these types of motors rotate when voltage is assigned to their terminals. The step motors with have multiple toothed electromagnets fixed around a piece of iron shaped as a gear. Some additional characteristics of stepper motors include;

These motors are continual power devices.
As the motor speed increases, the torque of the motor will decrease.
To extend a torque curve, extend the current limiting drivers and increase the voltage. Many off the shelf driver chips will be able to do this and may also be called a chopper circuit.
Step motors with a higher number of phases also exhibit smoother operation, this can also be obtained by using a micro stepping drive.

There are three different types of stepper motors available on the market, and they include, the Permanent Magnet Stepper (PM), Variable Reluctance Stepper (VR), and the most popular Hybrid Synchronous Stepper. The main reason the Hybrid Synchronous Stepper motor is the most popular is because it utilizes the combination of both the PM and VR step motors.

Stepper motors are used around the world because of their reliability with high torque and low speeds. Circuit Specialists stock some of the most rugged and low cost stepper motors available online.

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