The little stepper motors featured in the video are readily available on ebay for just £1 (about $1.50 USD). They also have matching drivers which are just a simple circuit based on a ULN2003 seven stage darlington driver. The driver board takes the logic level signals from an Arduino or microcontroller and buffers them up to allow switching of up to 500mA per channel.
The motors have five connections. A common positive and four windings that when pulled to the negative rail in sequence cause the output of the motor to rotate.
The motor is geared for higher resolution and torque, and also has a slip-clutch that prevents damage if the output is forced round or jammed.
These motors seem to be used in air conditioning units to give positional control and sweep options on the air outlet vents. They generally just wind in one direction at start up, slipping at the end of travel until the time taken to reset from a fully open to closed position has been achieved. This means that no matter where the louvre started, it will always be in a known open or closed position. And from there the controller only needs to move it back and forth with known numbers of pulses to position it anywhere or even pan it back and forth.
The motor in this video is rated for 5V and draws just 120mA per winding.
To test it I wrote a small machine code (assembler) routine for a PIC12F629 microcontroller that had some simple loops and delays to provide the required positioning pulses. It winds the vent open for a fixed length of time and then oscillates it back and forth with a short delay at each end of the travel.
The motors have five connections. A common positive and four windings that when pulled to the negative rail in sequence cause the output of the motor to rotate.
The motor is geared for higher resolution and torque, and also has a slip-clutch that prevents damage if the output is forced round or jammed.
These motors seem to be used in air conditioning units to give positional control and sweep options on the air outlet vents. They generally just wind in one direction at start up, slipping at the end of travel until the time taken to reset from a fully open to closed position has been achieved. This means that no matter where the louvre started, it will always be in a known open or closed position. And from there the controller only needs to move it back and forth with known numbers of pulses to position it anywhere or even pan it back and forth.
The motor in this video is rated for 5V and draws just 120mA per winding.
To test it I wrote a small machine code (assembler) routine for a PIC12F629 microcontroller that had some simple loops and delays to provide the required positioning pulses. It winds the vent open for a fixed length of time and then oscillates it back and forth with a short delay at each end of the travel.
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Naturally I was suggested this video by YT after my stepper motor comment in the "Pink Clam" video 😂 I love serendipity.
I'm glad you took the motor apart. I "know" how things work, based on principal, but I've always been that guy who had to take it even further and dissect my electronics. Got me into a lot of trouble as a kid, hah.
After watching this though I realized that I may be obsessed with motors in general… 🤔
Those are in lots of things, such as laminators, mirror ball rotators, motorised projection screens etc.
Nice! Is it also possible to make the motor spin without using code?
So if you hate Servo motor just use this type of geared motor
Big Clive, 5 wires and two coils (2 ends each =4) why the need for 5 wires? Could you please explain the wiring.
🤔 I wonder if you use that to rotate a lamp
Hey Clive, there are 5V and 12V versions available of the 28BYJ-48. I can't seem to find real data in terms of torque, noise, speed etc. What would you recommend for a DIY motorized blinds? Not sure if I'd need to use bipolar or unipolar either.
I've got a similar looking stepper, but says 6v 10ohms (part number 20BYJ01-160HR).. however the motor drivers I've seen all have a trim pot to adjust the vref until it corresponds to the maximum current you want to drive. But I can't find any datasheet on the motor, so how do you know how much current it can take? Or the number of steps per revolution? And what happens if I apply 8v-24v instead of the 6v?
Just so damned clever and only a quid or so complete with driver!
My mrs is playing hell with me because I am buying 'junk' as she refers to my purchases off ebay- oh and the postie is pissed off as well as nearly all chinese vendors want a signature because of "oh it didn't arrive culture " hahaha loving it! gonna buy you a coffee next pension day!
Tnis is actually how the steppers in FTIR instruments work. To save cost there is no "zero" indicator. Instead the software moves the motor all the way to the end and then some, letting the motor "slip" . After that time it knows it will be a zero position. From that point it can then count steps to go to a known position
You can actually build 3D printers with these motors. I am currently in the process of doing so. Just wanted to let you people know
Why do they look like microwave turntable synchronous motors?
how much faster could you get that motor to turn back and forth?