Stepper motor controller choice and suitability

Community General Discussions
1

Hi,

We have a suntracker which uses two stepper motors to turn an azimuth and altitude gear. The current motors have the following specifications:

The specs of our current motor (SST57D3100) are Step angle = 1.8 degrees, Voltage = 6.7 V, Current = 1.0 A/phase, Resistance = 6.7 ohm/phase, Inductance = 13 mH/phase, Holding torque = 9.7 kg.cm, Rotor Inertia = 250 g/cm^2, Number of leads = 6, Weight = 0.6 kg

I’ve attached a pdf of how the stepper motor functions (page 3), which wires need to be excited in what order to make the shaft turn.

I’m wanting to control these motors or a similar spec’d motor with a python program.

The program basically has some code which tells the motors when to turn so i need a controllers which will allow me to send characters over a serial or usb line when i require the motors to turn.

I was thinking of using something like this to control the two stepper motors we have.

Can anyone tell me if this will suit my application? Will it have enough power to turn this stepper motor?

I assume i’d need two of these controllers to control two stepper motors?

Will these motors integrate into a live running python program? or do you need to upload a program to the controllers and they then operate independently?

Can someone provide an instruction manual for these controllers? Does that exist?

Many thanks

oman

2

Given our motor is unipolar i assume this controller is better suited robotshop.com/productinfo.aspx?pc=RB-Phi-67&lang=en-US ?

3

The controller you chose seems to be capable or running your motor. You will need one controller per motor though.

Also, the controller does not store any programs, you simply send it commands, and fortunately, it has a Python library that goes with it that you can use to program it:
phidgets.com/docs/Programming_Resources

You can find its user guide here:
phidgets.com/docs/1063_User_Guide

This document might also be of help:
phidgets.com/docs/Stepper_Motor_and_Controller_Primer

4

That controller should work too. Please note that a unipolar motor can be converted to bipolar by connecting the centre taps on their coils together.