NE555 stepper motor control part II

N.B. in the video, at 3' 30", we go on about the LED flashing 8 or 10 times a second. However, it looks like it’s on all the time; alas, the video camera has a greater persistence of vision than the human eye – it really was flashing, honest! In the previous video, we demonstrated how smooth-running of a NEMA 17 200-step stepper motor could be achieved by using the readily available M335 microstep driver unit. We used a large stand-alone signal generator to provide the pulses needed. Much more convenient, is the use of the very cheap NE555 timer chip. This ‘quick and dirty’ method is shown in this video. We have skated around a few things, and got a few things wrong – apologies to experts! – but the gist of the method is, I think, present. Hoping that it will be of help to people who, like me, wondered how to simply make a stepper motor rotate at a range of speeds, controllable by a simple variable resistance. Also, images, especially the circuit diagrams, plus more explanatory notes, observations &c. are available on my website: http://www.normanfield.com/steppermot...