[cncneon]

Have a NEMA 23 with 8 wires coming out
4 pairs of the following
Black - White with Black stripe
Red - White with Red Stripe
Orange - White with Orange stripe
Yellow - White with yellow stripe
If you had to guess which way to hook driver polarity would you assume
solid was positive. What is the downside if I guess wrong?
Thanks
cncneon

[john-100]

do you have the data sheet for the motor ???


if for instance for all the coils
the solid colour is the start of the winding

then for parallel connected pairs of coils you need the solid coloured wire from each coil connecting together and the ends with the stripe together
other wise the magnetic field from one coil will cancel the magnetic field from the second coil
(when the solid coloured wire from the first coil is connected to the striped wire from the second coil and vice versa )

when two coils are wired in series
the start of one coil must be connected to the finish of the other other wise the magnetic fields will cancel again


its possible that some stepper drivers could be damaged by a load that is resistive instead of inductive
usually the stepper driver instructions / data sheet will specify both a minimum and maximum inductance for the driver to work

you could test the motor coils are connected correctly by connecting a single cell battery to the wires from one of the motor phases

if they are wired correctly , you should find its harder to turn the motor manually

parallel connected coils wired in phase or series coils, wired in phase the motor
should turn as easily as it does with no battery
but be harder with a battery connected

note -
the motor when manually turned acts as a generator so you will have a breaking effect if the coils are shorted or connected in anti phase !

to prove the two coils are the two halves of the same phase


if you have correctly identified the start of each winding
when you power one coil at a time the rotor will stay in the same position

if they are one half of each phase , the rotor will move back and forth one step
as you alternate the power from one coil and then to the other


John