Here's a Simple Guide to Stepper Motors

Here's a simple guide to Stepper Motors http://snip.ly/g2uty

Electric motors are the obvious and ubiquitous way to translate electrical to mechanical energy.  DC motors are usually used where battery power is needed. AC motors are usually used in industry and for appliances where higher power is needed. The power can vary from a few milliwatts to several hundred megawatts. But a common type in machines is the Stepper motor.

Stepper Motors

Stepper motors turn a rotor in angular steps as the windings are energized.  The torque of steppers is generally the highest when there is no movement of the rotor and the torque decreases with increase of rotation speed. The holding current on stepper windings is highest when there is no movement, so that is opposite to the other types of DC motors. That is the reason they tend to run hot.
Steppers are found in places where high precision is needed, e.g disk drives and CD players for head movement. They are an indispensable part of CNC machines. Printers uses steppers too.
There are three main types of stepper motors :

• Permanent magnet stepper
• Hybrid synchronous stepper
• Variable reluctance stepper

Permanent magnet motors use a permanent magnet in the rotor and operate on the attraction or repulsion between the rotor and the stator electromagnets. Variable reluctance motors have a plain iron rotor and operate based on the principle that minimum reluctance occurs with minimum gap, hence the rotor points are attracted toward the stator magnet poles.

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