Big Stepper Motors with Arduino

Today I’ll be working with a BIG stepper motor. I’ll show you how to use a microstep driver module and an Arduino to drive a NEMA 23 size motor.

Article with code: https://dbot.ws/bigstep
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We have covered stepper motors before, if you missed out then please see the video at and the article at so that you can bring yourself up to speed.

Today we will work with a bigger motor than the ones used in the original video. This motor is a NEMA 23 size beast that takes up to 4.2 amperes per coil, more than we can drive using the drivers and H-Bridges we used earlier.

To drive this motor I’ll be using a microstep module, a common device available on eBay, at Amazon and at your local electronic and electrical supply store. The module I used is a model MA860H but the wiring and coding will work for any one of these modules.

In order to select a module suitable for your stepper motor you will need to know how to read and interpret some of the stepper motor specifications, so I’ll cover that. One spec that fools a lot of people is the voltage rating, I’ll explain why the number in the spec sheets can be ignored!

I’ll show you how to hook the microstep module up to an Arduino and how to code for it, using a simple sketch and also the AccelStepper library.

Here is what you will find in today’s video:

Reading Stepper Motors Specifications – 2:18
Selecting a Microstep Driver – 8:49
Arduino Hookup and Demo – 12:33
Using AccelStepper – 22:44

If you’d like the sketch or want additional information you can find it all in the article on the DroneBot Workshop website at https://dbot.ws/bigstep

Happy stepping!

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