I am the fellow who had some basic questions about stepper motors. Do you 
have any idea of just how to hook up a vm to a stepper? That would be more 
appreciated than your lashing out at someone who's just trying to be 
helpful, wouldn't it?

Ken Wilson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Olin Lathrop" <olin_piclist@embedinc.com>
To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <piclist@mit.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: [EE] Finding stepper motor wiring


> James Newtons Massmind wrote:
>> Err... Did anyone see this? Any comments? Can someone maybe just say
>> that they got it and why they aren't interested?
>
> I got it.  Seems like a long way to go to avoid using an ohmmeter.
>
> I was also not sure how much you can feel a shorted winding on a stepper
> motor, since most have fairly strong detent forces to begin with.  I 
> didn't
> have a stepper motor handy to try on, so I kept quiet.  Your method also 
> has
> the problem of not determining polarity easily.  If you've got 4 pairs, 
> just
> tying one from each together will only work for 2 out of the 16 possible
> combinations.
>
> Then there's the question of why is someone messing with stepper motors 
> that
> knows so little about electronics that they have a phobia for ohmmeters. 
> Or
> at least why would you want to put yourself in the position to support 
> them.
> It seems like a no-win situation.  When something doesn't work they'll 
> blame
> you.
>
> It did make me think a little about how to automate this with a PIC.  Plug
> in up to 8 wires from a stepper motor and a few seconds later it tells you
> what's what.  Then I realized this would be a low volume product and the
> same people that don't want to spen $15 for an ohmmeter aren't going to
> spend $200 or more for a stepper motor tester when you can buy a new 
> stepper
> motor for $20.
>
> I've also stopped responding to general requests for help ever since I 
> found
> out you were sensoring my posts behind my back and despite your promise 
> not
> to back in October.  I now only jump into interesting intellectual
> discussions or when I otherwise feel like it or have something to gain
> myself.  I don't want to "support" the PIClist with free help as long as 
> my
> posts continue to be subjected to sensorship.
>
>
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