Need some help with steppers

[Addonex]

So I have a pair of stepper motors I got off eBay for pocket change several years ago (pretty much just for the sake of how cheap they were) but I never ended doing anything with them since I know very little about steppers and galvos.

I would like to put these 2 to use to make some simply spyrograph patterns and liquid sky / light tunnel effects etc. But I have no idea how to drive or control these. If someone could give me a guide or walkthrough or something or a product/device (preferably usb?) that can control them I would really appreciate it.

The steppers are about the size of a quarter with a small 4 pin wire harness and front surface mirror attached and have the following markings on them:
50-03500- 014
8Y25
SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES INC.

*edit* found this picture online which seems to be the same type if it helps any.

I appreciate any help and thanks in advanced for any information provided. :thanks:

 

[JLSE]

Its something I have little experience with, but there are a few members here
that should be able to guide you...

If you want to make a spyro that does the basics, it would be far more simple to
use a couple of motors from a dvd drive and FS mirrors.

With the steppers and controller, you could specific patterns, but the speed of
the motors will also play a role in what is possible.

It will make for a much more complicated build, that I can say for sure.

 

[kiyoukan]

well with out going into lots of complicated controllers there is another way.
What you want to do is energize one of the coils in the motor to act as a electronic spring then you use the other coil with a varying signal aka audio and it should vibrate the motor. make sure your signal line is not stronger than your holding coil
the idea is when you play the audio it move a bit and then when it goes off the other coil brings it back to the exact same spot.

 

[Addonex]

well with out going into lots of complicated controllers there is another way.
What you want to do is energize one of the coils in the motor to act as a electronic spring then you use the other coil with a varying signal aka audio and it should vibrate the motor. make sure your signal line is not stronger than your holding coil
the idea is when you play the audio it move a bit and then when it goes off the other coil brings it back to the exact same spot.

This sounds very promising, could you go into a bit more detail or maybe provide a link to some more info? I think something like this would work very well for my purposes since I don't want any complicated shapes.

 

[kiyoukan]

this is the best place i can point you too.
if you do this it should work very well.
also i happen to have a basic stamp2 and programing board for sale if you do want to go that way instead of just audio
Laser Community :: View project - Guide to Building a Homemade XY Scanner
good luck and have fun.
i used this way for some time but later went to galvos.

 

[HIMNL9]

SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Symbol is a manufacturer that sell barcode scanners/readers ..... and yes, your motors looks similar to some that you can find in barcode readers (sometimes they are used as stepper motors, some other times, they are used as "pseudo-galvo" motors (i mean, powering one of the phases for have a "keep" signal, and driving the other phase as a galvo, for have a limited moving angle)

I suppose you can use any standard stepper motors ICs, low power, for use them as stepper, or a power op-amp for drive them as "pseudo-galvo" style ..... not the same precision and linearity of a normal galvo unit, anyway, but may worth some experiments