Motors - Control of Stepping Motors Tutorial(1).pdf

Control of Stepping Motors
A Tutorial
by Douglas W. Jones
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Department puter Science
This material expands on material originally posted to the newsgroup in 1990. Significant parts of this
material have been republished as sections , , and of the Handbook of Small Electric Motors
edited by W. H. Yeadon and A. W. Yeadon, McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Copyright © 1995, Douglas W. Jones; major revision 1998. This work may be transmitted or stored in electronic
form on puter attached to the or World Wide Web so long as this notice is included in the copy.
Individuals may make single copies for their own use. All other rights are reserved.
Index
● Abstract
● Introduction
● 1. Types of Stepping Motors
● 2. Stepping Motor Physics
● 3. Basic Control Circuits
● 4. Current Limiting
● 5. Microstepping
● 6. Mid-Level Control
● 7. High Level Real-Time Control
● old 5. Stepping Motor Control Software
● old 6. A Worked Example
● Other Sources of Information
Abstract
This tutorial covers the basic principles of stepping motors and stepping motor control systems,
including both the physics of steppers, the electronics of the basic control systems, and software
architectures appropriate for motor control.
Introduction
Stepping motors can be viewed as electric motors mutators. Typically, all windings in
the motor are part of the stator, and the rotor is either a permanent or, in the case of variable
reluctance motors, a toothed block of some ically soft material. All of mutation must
be handled externally by the motor controller, and typically, the motors and controllers are designed
so that the motor may be held in any fixed position as well as being rotated one way or the other.
Most steppers, as they are also known, can be stepped at audio frequencies, allowing them to spin
quite quickly, and with an appropriate controller, they may be started and stopp