The Cheapest way to control a Stepper Motor with an Arduino. But is it any good?

Let’s have a look at the L298N Driver. It’s cheap and easy to find, but is it any good? Well it depends…

[tubertuber]

Thanks for the great video Yvan. I went to your web site to get the correct spelling of your name and just now learnt that you closed your store. I understand your reasons. Thanks for the great service you provided in the past. It was really convenient to have you just one major city to the east of me.

[alagarramanujam]

Nice ! works well!!, excellent tip about the code line for cut the power and avoid overheating. Please share me code for 2 stepper motors speed control using one joystick and 2+2 limit switches.

[joshfixesall]

I had great results with A4988

The driver you are using uses a Dual H Bridge, which means each channel can reverse also, which is overkill for a stepper and is a not needed feature which takes up more space in the package you're not using. A4988 simply is designed for stepper motors.

[gnzngonzio]

Nice one !!, excellent tip about the code line for cut the power and avoid overheating. 👍

[PhG]

I've been using the L-298 for over 30 years ! The module with the L-298 you're showing, is of course more recent. The reason why I like it so much is because it's straight forward and cheap. For me, the 'no current' limitation is perfect. Many times I used it to it's max. performance and it does the job rather well. However, I used much lager cooling elements (custom made PCB) to avoid thermal shut down. In that way, you can use it easily for continuous stall with amps above 1.6A

[filipfusion]

Hi ! Is there a way to use a potentiometer instead ?

[vasyapupken]

if stepper motor datasheet says it draws X amps that doesn't mean you need a 2X amp driver.
yes there is two phase coils inside the motor but they NEVER get max current at the same time. X amp motor -> X amp driver.

[Ed]

Great video. "The easy driver doesnt need a heatsink, butvyou should install one anyway because it can become very hot"
So that's kinda like the L298 :-)
The current limiting you speak about is a bit odd. The board doesn't pump more current through motor than it requires at its operating voltage. Limiting the current will unavoidably lead to a voltage drop and drop the power/torque of the motor.
If you would need this to avoid your motor 'getting hot if you leave it on for long' you ha e picked the wrong motor for the job.
The only reason I can see for the current limiting is to avoid a burn out of your motor in case it gets overloaded or stuck.

[wolfrobots]

Only use l298 if you want to melt it or catch it on fire if used with a stepper If you use a stepper for more than 20 or 30 seconds it will start to overheat the module. Get the t6600 stepper motor driver for stepper motors of this size.

[muratcanbarut]

Amazing video Yvan, ı wish you have answered old videos comments as well . the absolute rotary encoder video, library should be 1.7.0, otherwise doesnt work, and LCD connection different than I2C ! thank you

[aydinlucaz]

Amazing video Yvan. Helps a lot. I was wondering if it is possible to make the 2-axis slider that you made previously with a L298N driver? If yes, how?

[andrewmack]

interesting. Thank you. Keep the videos coming

[sameerk]

Great tutorial...very helpful and informative....

[barathv]

Hi the codes which u uploaded in ur page for the camera slider is not working.

The motor does not move at all.
It's stationary.

[charlieharris]

Hi Ivan with a stepper motor I want to drive via a gear a module along a tube. Like 3D printer etc. Want 4 set positions for the motor to run to, then select 1 of 4 buttons to go to that position. In any order without returning to home position. Do you have a video or code that does that or nearly that? Thanks CharlesHarris

[salvatorebarbaro]

// works but has some flaws
// arduino doesn't have to do anything else because the single steps take place at each loop cycle, therefore also dependent on the clock frequency of the type of arduino used
// the potentiometer must be linear to have a good stroke length, otherwise too rapid acceleration will cause the motor to lose steps 'read stepper motor acceleration curve'

[williamkavanagh]

awesome! and on the edge of my seat for the shield!, i am using a cnc shield with grbl and 4 stepper motors for a cnc project. however i’d love to learn to use the shield without grbl to do custom movements or independently move 4 axis with joysticks etc. thanks!

[michaelcostello]

Does it work with a unipolar stepper motor 5 wire

[driversteve]

I just subscribed to your channel but I'm wondering why the headless/faceless body shot? Do you work for the CIA? LoL!

[wolfrobots]

Also this is not recommended to use for a separate murder even for a simple project it should never ever be used for a stepper motor... They whoever they are should stop advertising that it can
be used for stepper motors because that makes it very dangerous.