Stepper Motor Driver

Another task with the stepper motor setup is how to control it.  A driver is used to convert input (step and direction) to the correct signal sequence in the coils to turn the motor.  It also provides power which in this case is 12 volts.  I ordered an EasyDriver and hooked it up in a breadboard to the motor on one side, 12V power on another, and input signal from the Arduino microcontroller on the third side.  In turn the Arduino is connected by a USB cable to my laptop to upload programs.

I uploaded a simple program to turn 10 steps in one direction, then 10 steps back, etc.  There was a problem.  The motor turned one way but with a click, then jiggled and wouldn't go back.  I am sure my freezing, heating, hammering, etc. trying to work out a coupling system ruined it.  So now I know exactly what not to do.  At this point there was no reason not to open it up and take a look.

The center has magnets and a toothed wheel that lines up with teeth in the electromagnet coils around the outside.  It is these teeth that have very precise tolerances and can get chipped or bent.  I tried moving things around a bit to try to fix it but it doesn't seem promising.  So the stepper motor project is on hold for the time being.