Has anyone used stepper motors for DIY?

[RicoJ]

I have been reading about stepper motors on the internet and was wondering if anyone has used one of these to create an oscillating power head.

Rico.

[lucubrator]

I did something like that that would be like an oscillator, but unless you want to buy a microcontroller programer, and a number of other things, they're a bit hard to do. It's easier to use a motor and a pushrod to do it.

[RicoJ]

lucubrator do you have pictures?

[fppf]

You would NOT need a micro and there not that hard to use. You need to make/buy a motor drive circuit that has a "Step" input and a "Direction" input. Then just make an ocs and divide it down. Use the fast clock for the stepping and then divide it down by how many steps in each sweep. Use that line for the direction input. Then you have a very simple sweeping motor output. Put hard stops on it that can stall the motor so if you miss steps it will just get realinged on the next sweep.