Stepper Motor Trouble

Question

I have the 28BYJ-48 stepper motor, and I simply want to make it move forward or backward to make a robot car with RPi. I tried many of the sample codes in the internet, but the motor is not really moving, only vibrating a bit. I would appreciate if you give me a solution or a code for moving the stepper motor.

Answer 1

The following code permutes through the 16 possibilities to find the right wiring for your stepper.

It makes several assumptions.

1. You have connected four different GPIO to the stepper motor driver board.
2. You have correctly defined the (Broadcom numbered) GPIO to the script.
3. You have correctly powered the stepper motor driver board and linked the stepper motor driver board ground to a Pi ground.

#!/usr/bin/env python

# permute_stepper.py
# 2014-10-06
# Public Domain

import time
import itertools

import pigpio # http://abyz.me.uk/rpi/pigpio/python.html

class stepper:
   """
   A class to pulse a stepper.
   """

   def __init__(self, pi, g1, g2, g3, g4):
      """
      """
      self.pi = pi
      self.g1 = g1
      self.g2 = g2
      self.g3 = g3
      self.g4 = g4

      self.all = (1<<g1 | 1<<g2 | 1<<g3 | 1<<g4)

      self.pos = 0

      pi.set_mode(g1, pigpio.OUTPUT)
      pi.set_mode(g2, pigpio.OUTPUT)
      pi.set_mode(g3, pigpio.OUTPUT)
      pi.set_mode(g4, pigpio.OUTPUT)

   def move(self):
      pos = self.pos 
      if pos < 0:
         pos = 7
      elif pos > 7:
         pos = 0
      self.pos = pos

      if   pos == 0: on = (1<<self.g4)
      elif pos == 1: on = (1<<self.g3 | 1<<self.g4)
      elif pos == 2: on = (1<<self.g3)
      elif pos == 3: on = (1<<self.g2 | 1<<self.g3)
      elif pos == 4: on = (1<<self.g2)
      elif pos == 5: on = (1<<self.g1 | 1<<self.g2)
      elif pos == 6: on = (1<<self.g1)
      else:          on = (1<<self.g1 | 1<<self.g4)

      off = on ^ self.all

      self.pi.clear_bank_1(off)
      self.pi.set_bank_1(on)

   def forward(self):
      self.pos += 1
      self.move()

   def backward(self):
      self.pos -= 1
      self.move()

   def stop(self):
      self.pi.clear_bank_1(self.all)

# Permutes the gpio assignments to find ones which successfully
# drive a stepper.  The stepper should move clockwise then
# anti-clockwise for DELAY seconds.

DELAY=3

gpios = [7, 8, 9, 10] # Set the gpios being used here.

pi=pigpio.pi()

if not pi.connected:
   exit(0)

try:
   for x in itertools.permutations(gpios):

      s = stepper(pi, x[0], x[1], x[2], x[3])

      print("Trying {}".format(x))

      stop = time.time() + DELAY
      while time.time() < stop:
         s.forward()
         time.sleep(0.0001)

      stop = time.time() + DELAY
      while time.time() < stop:
         s.backward()
         time.sleep(0.0001)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
   pass

s.stop()

pi.stop()