Paul B. Webster VK2BZC wrote:
>
> Mark Willis wrote:
>
> > A friend wants help driving the square stepper motor off of a Teac
> > 5.25" Floppy (the head positioning stepper), at 8Hz or so, for a
> > ribbon inker, giving him 12 RPM's.
>
> > He has yet to get me specs on that motor, anyone know that motor well
> > & have good details on how to drive 'er?
>
>   Yes.  It's dead simple.  TAKE THE PCB OFF THE FLOPPY DRIVE and connect
> the motor to it.  You now have a complete driver operating from a 12V
> and 5V supply via a standard power connector, and a logic interface at
> TTL (CMOS) levels by Enable, Direction and Step commands.
>
>   How much easier can you want?
> --
>   Cheers,
>         Paul B.

Saw Todd Peterson's post also - Thanks, Todd, good info.

Paul - Definitely! - He and I were talking about that already (Just sent
him a 8Hz LM555 circuit, which should do him nicely to clock that card
<G>) - You know me, though, I want to know MORE, MORE, MORE <G>  I have
a LOT of old steppers around here & will be using them for other uses
(some of which will have to be PIC driven, and are no-where near as
simple as his needs.  I want to automate feeding the cats, some day, for
one thing.)  He wants an absolute minimal cost solution, I'm after
refreshing my DRam brain cells thoroughly <G>  (They're all too much in
need of refreshing.)

I also was already talking to him about half-stepping the motor, which
I'd probably do here - but I doubt he'll do, for finer smoother rotation
of the motor.  (I've wondered - Does half-stepping give you more
effective torque out of the same stepper?  Or no effect there?)

I might scavenge driver parts off floppy boards, but want to be able to
be independent (on some designs) of a PC power supply <G>

  Mark