Five Phase Stepper Motor — I need to find a Driver

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Great when it works..

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

For small 4-pole steppers the Polulu boards Michael pointed me at are great. They use an allegro chip and are really easy to drive.

Neil

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Neil..you might find that thouse a4988 polou boards are two phase bipolar. . But yes great value and simple to integrate. .

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Sorry, you're right Jason. In fact I have a good stock of 5-wire 4-pole motors and it's annoying that their construction doesn't make it easy to get inside to rewire them

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 02/08/2015 09:18:46:

Sorry, you're right Jason. In fact I have a good stock of 5-wire 4-pole motors and it's annoying that their construction doesn't make it easy to get inside to rewire them

.

Neil,

Just for clarity … My motor is Five Phase … it has ten wires, and needs a special driver.

The various links posted earlier in this thread should explain.

MichaelG.

[Roger WoollettParticipant @rogerwoollett53105]

I hope I am not repeating what has already been said but it seems to me that if you do not want to use microstepping an arduino could be used as the controller with some fairly simple external electronics. I have written my own driver code for a simple four wire motor using this technique.

In a five phase motor the sequence of stepping is a bit more complicated. This link

**LINK**

shows that each phase (pair of wires) needs to be driven positive, negative or off. Using a standard h-bridge for each pahses means we need 3 arduino pins for each phase. By using a NAND gate for each phase this can be reduced to two. One pin controls the current direction and the other goes to the h-bridge enable.

I would be happy to help with the programming.

Roger Woollett

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Roger … That's very decent of you !!

As you will see from the link that I re-posted on 31/07/015, I do have a very clever PIC-based option available … but I would also be very interested to discover how to drive this by Arduino.

Jason has already been great help, but I don't yet have a practical solution.

Please send me a P.M. if you are interested in discussing this off-forum.

Thanks again

MichaelG.

[Roger WoollettParticipant @rogerwoollett53105]

I have only rudimentary electronics experience so we might need help from the more knowledgable. If I read the datasheet correctly each phase can draw 0.5 amps and the coil resistance is 8 ohms meaning a supply voltage of 4 volts. This suggests to me a power supply of 2.5 amps at 4 volts.

This should be within the capabilities of the SN754410 chip I used.

We also need to establish the input to the arduino – what logic determines how many steps to take and how fast.

I will send a PM.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Gentlemen.
I restarted this because I had just discovered the UPDATED stepper library for audrino… Now includes a five phase support.
.

Apart from current control . All you need is five 1/2 h bridge drivers. ..

Edited By jason udall on 02/08/2015 17:47:58

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Just to add.. the + – and off drive for each coil is achived by either star or “penta” wiring..adjacent phases are joined in the penta ( delta) mode thus driving both ends of a coil +( or -).yields the no drive condition for tgat phase..

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by jason udall on 02/08/2015 17:41:32:
Gentlemen.
I restarted this because I had just discovered the UPDATED stepper library for audrino… Now includes a five phase support.
.
Apart from current control . All you need is five 1/2 h bridge drivers. ..

.

Thanks Jason !!

Sorry; I read your note in haste, and hadn't realised the full significance of what you were saying.

I already have the 1/2 H-Bridge Drivers in stock … so just need to get on with it.

MichaelG.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

One caution. .the home made sequencer solution does nothing to control the current through the motor.

Typicaly 0.5 ohm coils driven ( in the case of one motor/drive from 48V..).
This high voltage and sometimes pulse shaped current limit isto over come the inductance of the motor coil.. its easier to hit 2A in a milli second id you aim for 6 A in 5-10 ms…
Any way note some current limit will be needed

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by jason udall on 02/08/2015 20:03:45:
One caution. .the home made sequencer solution does nothing to control the current through the motor.

< etc. >

.

Thanks again, Jason

Wise Words indeed !!

I have some useful 'Kensington' 70 Watt Laptop Power Supplies, which can be programmed [with a couple of resistors] to limit both voltage and current.

… Hopefully, one of these will do the trick.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: Added link, for the benefit of fellow dabblers.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/08/2015 10:37:35

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