[Gallchobhair]

I do not know if this is the correct place to ask.

I have some stepper motors with 6 wires and the controller uses 4. Which 4 on the motor go to the controller and what do I do with the other 2 ?
The wires on the motor are red,green,yellow,black,white,blue.

Thank you
Don

[aarggh]

If you can't find any wiring diagrams for the model steppers, you'll need to use an ohmmeter to measure the resistance of the leads to work out the two coils and centre taps (obviously the centre taps will measure half the resistance between two other connected leads for each coil), then ignoring the centre taps, (tape the ends over so they can't short anything) hook up one coil to the A-/A+ and the other coil to the B-/B+, and see if you can jog the stepper manually via the computer or the pendant if you have one. Even if the connections are wrong the worst that will happen is the stepper just won't move, or will advance slightly and then stop. It might make funny grinding noises if not wired correctly, this is fine and will usually indicate the wiring is wrong, or the speed is set way too high.

Swap over the leads until the motor moves appropriately, BUT, do not disconnect the steppers with the power applied, the EMF can blow the cheaper driver boards. Power the board down before rewiring.

This link is very useful and should illustrate it well for you:

6 Wire Motors

cheers,
Ian

[Gallchobhair]

If you can't find any wiring diagrams for the model steppers, you'll need to use an ohmmeter to measure the resistance of the leads to work out the two coils and centre taps (obviously the centre taps will measure half the resistance between two other connected leads for each coil), then ignoring the centre taps, (tape the ends over so they can't short anything) hook up one coil to the A-/A+ and the other coil to the B-/B+, and see if you can jog the stepper manually via the computer or the pendant if you have one. Even if the connections are wrong the worst that will happen is the stepper just won't move, or will advance slightly and then stop. It might make funny grinding noises if not wired correctly, this is fine and will usually indicate the wiring is wrong, or the speed is set way too high.

Swap over the leads until the motor moves appropriately, BUT, do not disconnect the steppers with the power applied, the EMF can blow the cheaper driver boards. Power the board down before rewiring.

This link is very useful and should illustrate it well for you:

6 Wire Motors

cheers,
Ian

Thank you for the reply. I had an electrician friend come over and we worked it out.