David Duffy wrote:
>
> A question for anyone who uses stepper motors. (Roman ?)
> Is there a good little driver IC for small bipolar steppers that
> is not too dear & is available in Oz? The L293 looks OK apart
> from the high quiescent current. I was thinking of using motors
> stripped from 3.5" floppy drives. Still just mucking about with
> different motors before I settle on a platform design. The guy
> who does our metalwork will see some odd drawings come
> through on his fax in the next week or two!  Everyone needs a
> fun project every so often to keep them sane. :-)
> Regards...

Hi David, the Mitsubishi M54646 looks nice, this
is $14 AU from WES. Drives both phases and only
needs two dig inputs for full bipolar operation.
It also has current ref inputs, so with two
analog pins (PIC pwm?) you can get full
bipolar microstepping from one 28 DIP chip
with only 4 PIC pins.

Second choice is Allegro TEA3717, it has 8 step
math-compensated microstepping built in with 3 bit
digital input, but you need two chips, one for
each phase. Can be sourced in Aust for about
$10 AU each.

Datasheets for both are common if you do net
search, or contact me off list I can email
datasheets to you. :o)
-Roman

PS. Is this for a little bot?

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