Circuit help - Motor controller

[alpha]

Hello,

Firstly I'd just like to state that I'm an absolute novice when it comes to electronics. I can follow basic diagrams however please have patients if I reply with what may seem silly/stupid questions.

I have built a large stepper motor and now I wish to power said motor up to a variable of speeds. I don't understand how I go about switching the polarity of the electro magnets to spin the motor. I'm not sure if a chipboard is required? Or can it be done with relays or will the motor magnets interfere?

Any info/help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for viewing the thread.

 

[davenn]

Hi alpha
welcome to the forums

Have you googled stepper motor controller circuits ?

Dave

 

[alpha]

Hi alpha
welcome to the forums

Have you googled stepper motor controller circuits ?

Dave

Thanks for the quick reply and welcome Dave.

I have and haven't, ideally I would like someone to explain in a very basic form what I would need, the wiring diagrams are too complex for me to follow, not knowing what each component is needed.

I would be using DC, would this matter instead of AC?

More importantly to me, I would like to know how/why/what each component is doing rather than a list of whats needed as I would like to learn about electronics and not just throw it together.

Again, if anyone has the time to do so it'd be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks again.

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

Google stepper motor tutorial.
The first six hits, at least, look pretty good.

Stepper motors are driven from DC which is switched by semiconductor devices, usually MOSFETs.