In this sketch we make use of the Arduino Stepper Library which comes packaged with your Arduino IDE.The stepper library takes care of sequencing the pulses we will be sending to our stepper motor and it can be used with a wide variety of motors, both unipolar and bipolar. Stepper Introduction. A stepper motor is an electromechanical device which converts electrical pulses into discrete mechanical movements. The shaft or spindle of a stepper motor rotates in discrete step increments when electrical command pulses are applied to it in the proper sequence.
There's lots of great resources out there about Stepper Motors, how they work and what kinds are available, I'd recommend
I had acquired some Stepper Motors from Ebay, that didn't work well with the Adafruit Motor Shield. Looking at the specs the problem here was the resistance/current/voltage rating;
Rated Current/phase2.0A
Phase Resistance1.4ohms
Voltage2.8V
So, for Stepper motors, the resistance per phase is a constant. The Rated current is the MAXIMUM current the motor will take before bad things happen, and the voltage is the calculated voltage that will give a constant current at the rated current, for the motors resistance (V = I x R, V = 2.0A x 1.4Ohm = 2.8V).
The Adafruit stepper motor shield cant supply 2A,and has trouble with voltages below about 5V, so couldn't properly run my motors (they jittered but didn't smoothly move).
So, I got some stepsticks and decided to wire them up to my Arduino.
Other Materials
For this I also used;
An Arduino Uno, but any Arduino compatible should do
A Stepstick, or compatible stepper driver using a A4988 or DRV8825
A 12V power supply
A breadboard
Arduino Stepper Motor Driver Board Kit
Some hookup wire, I used solid Cat5 strands.
Arduino Stepper Motor Driver Board Game
I also used a couple of LEDs and some 220Ohm resistors