Robotics - VERY SIMPLE QUESTION

[INF3RN0666]

LOL, hopefully my topic didn't mislead people. I have a stepmotor that I pulled out of a printer. I also downloaded IO.DLL from the web so that I can control the Parallel Port. ALL I WANT TO DO IS MAKE THE MOTOR SPIN (I DON'T CARE WHICH WAY OR HOW LONG, BUT SPIN DAMN IT, SPIN!). I have no clue how to hook it upto my parallel port or what commands to send to the parallel port or with what function I should send the commands. LOL, so as you can see, I'm kinda lost right now!

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN, DO IT ON YOUR OWN FROM THE BEGINING!

Thank you for any help.

[Lightning]

It is simple, first find out how a step-motor works, it is really simple, if you know that you can easily control it with the lpt port.
This might help you getting started.

[INF3RN0666]

Thank you for you reply. However, I find that site hard to understand and very long. Can someone simply state what I should do to get it turning in 2 paragraphs or less ? LOL.

Thank you

[INF3RN0666]

BUMP

[INF3RN0666]

BUMP

[plenderj]

You're going to need to have a good knowledge of electronics to start hooking random parts together.
I suggest you get a robotics kit - normally you get a small printed circuit board with a serial connection on it, and you can control it then from inside VB or any other language.

[INF3RN0666]

I'm avoiding all types of robotics kits or pics for that matter. I wanna learn something from scratch for once in my life if you know what I mean?

i finally found out what a transistor does and correct me if i'm wrong but it amplifies the voltage that you pass through by saving it up untill enough voltage is formed.

[RobDog888]

Actually a transistor is more like a switch. It can be biased either
foward, reverse, or 'H' biased and depending upon the resistors
that are hooked up to it, it can deliver different voltages.

A Capacitor stores and discharges energy like a battery. Perhaps
that is what you are thinking of.

For a stepper motor you will need to design a driver circuit to
bump up the voltage and current from the LPT port to the levels
that the stepper motor needs. Also, add protection to your
motherboard LPT port incase of an accident you don't blow out
your LPT port.

To determine the direction and which wires out of the stepper
motor do what, you will need a meter that can measure Ohms,
Volts, and Amps (miliamps etc). Then test for continuity between
them. The wires with continuity will be the sets to apply the test
voltage to to determine the direction of the spin. Label each wire
after you get each match.

I did a very similar project back in the day in school. Although I
did it using QBasic language, which you can get control of the
COM port easily with functions and not dlls, and output the
signals to the COM port using binary values.

Later.