Stepper Motors

Advanced Topic Skip if you’re new, explore when you’re ready.

Big idea

Stepper motors act very similarly to servo motors in Bottango, but they take some extra configuration work and you’ll need a strategy for synchronizing (homing).

Wherever possible, stepper motors behave the same as servos. This section covers just what is different between stepper motors and servo motors. If you have not already, read the Motors section.

The biggest difference between stepper motors and servos is that stepper motors are “open loop” control, whereas servos are “closed loop” control. This means that while servos always know where they are, and can accurately go to a position indicated, stepper motors need to be brought to a known location first, and then move from there.

Note

Stepper motors have much higher CPU requirements for your microcontroller than servo motors. An Arduino Uno R3 is not well suited to driving stepper motors with Bottango, and will often have choppy real-world performance. An ESP32 or equivalent modern microcontroller is strongly recommended when using stepper motors with Bottango.