Using PC’s parallel port is a convenient way to control a stepper motor. For unipolar stepper motors, up to two motors can be controlled with the 8bit data line.
The standard way of connecting a unipolar stepper motor to the parallel port is to use a Darlington driver such as ULN2003 and there are already many examples out there on how to do this. In this post, I will show you how to build a simple stepper motor driver using discrete MOSFETs.
In the circuit diagram below, you will find that the four power MOSFETs are used as switches for each coil in the stepper motor (the stepper motor I used in this example is a MITSUMI M35SP-9. In theory, any uni-polar stepper motors should work with this circuit). A pull-down resistor is attached to the gate of each MOSFET. This is important as otherwise the interference from the port would prevent the MOSFET from switching reliably.
The benefit of using discrete MOSFET is that they can handle extremely high current loads. Using IRFZ22, the coil current can be as high as 10 Amp.
The following C code sets the data port (pin 2, 3, 4, 5) to high in order so that the stepper motor would rotate clockwise. If you want the motor to rotate counter-clockwise, simply change the output order to 8,4,2,1.
#include <sys/io.h>
#define PAR_PORT 0x378
void main()
{
while (1)
{
outb(1, PAR_PORT);
outb(2, PAR_PORT);
outb(4, PAR_PORT);
outb(8, PAR_PORT);
}
}
Hey Kerry, I didn’t know you were a resistor head. :-D Have you looked at any of the Arduino stuff? It’s cheap, has a pretty easy learning curve and it has tons applications / accessories. http://arduino.org/
Yes indeed. I bought one a few weeks ago…
can you show me how to connect the MITSUMI M35SP-9. Specifically where vcc connects to the motor.
I have figured out which wire is which for the the 4 drive lines but cannot figure out where the 5th wire is.
I have searched and searched and cannot find this out,
Thanks
Are you sure you have the M35SP-9? It should have 5 wires as it is a unipolar step motor.
Hello,
I built the same circuit, but it seems that the parallel port cannot drive the FETs directly.
What kind of DC voltage are you putting on the motor?
I am thinking of using AND gates (7408) to drive the FETs.
Thanks,
Konstantinos
Depends on the Vgs and the characteristics of the MOSFET you use, the MOSFET maynot be totally on for the logic voltage used. And thus if you are using a motor that has a higher drive current requirement, you probably will need to use some sort of voltage shifter or choosing a MOSFET that is logic level compatible.
Great!. is most important know the principe of things.
Good job!