What kind of Stepper is this?

So I found a great deal on Electronic Goldmine: miniature stepper motors for $1.50 each! (20 steps per revolution, or about 18 degrees.) I bought five. These puppies should be perfect for my new side-project!

My new project is a split-flap display math-learning board game for use in my Dad’s math tutoring business, Mathnaseum. The point of the game will be to teach the little one’s their addition/subtraction/multiplication/division tables in a fun, whimsical way by creating an intelligent automatic flash card system, and an accompanying game that allows kids to play head-t0-head in a battle of arithmatic-mad-science. I couldn’t find flexible split flap display for cheap, and it would take too much modification to bother with modding a flip-clock, so I thought I’d try to make one from scratch.

I want for the game to be as “real world” as possible; this could easily have been a computer game, but kids are bored with computer games. The magic of LCD’s is no longer magic: it’s everyday, it’s humdrum. By making the game mechanical, I’m hoping to intrigue kids, and help foster the idea that people can still make things in this high-tech world! So I’m going old-school: split flaps, literal bells and whistles, and analog inputs; maybe using old typewriter parts. I want it to look like a 1940′s vision of a time-machine.

The idea of a split-flap display is pretty simple. Basically I’ll be creating my own spindle system for each character, and to keep things simple I’ll probably just use one motor per character (which is why I have five of these motors!). The problem for me right now is how ignorant I am about steppers. For my CNC machine project (still in progress), I was able to utilize a clever driver board called the ?Easy Driver? to drive my steppers. Unfortunately I don’t think that will work for this one.

So what do I do? I’m asking the world: how do I make this stepper work? Electronic Goldmine provides a very handy schematic for how to create a stepper driver using parts from their site. Unfortunately, I’m an electronics-o-phobe in rehab, and I really don’t understand this at all. Could someone explain it to me by any chance? The more detail the better: I’m pretty dumb when it comes to this stuff! More info after the break:

Here’s a clean PDF version of the scan above, and here’s what the vendor (Electronic Goldmine) has to say about it:

2 phase bi-polar / Quadrature miniature stepper motor. Small 0.8″ diameter x 0.68″ thick stepper motor features a knurled 0.3″L x 0.06″ diameter shaft. Has 5 leads, however we include a schematic of a simple 3 IC driver circuit {uses one 74HC86 IC (G4792A), one 74HC365 IC(G12548) and one 4013 IC (G49999A) that will drive this stepper motor. The 5VDC circuit schematic features a Run/Stop input and reverse direction input. The stepper motor features 20 steps per revolution and is perfect for miniature robots. The stepper motor is brand new precision made with 4 pin female connector on end of 2.8″L leads. Motor and schematic only (no driver components).

Thanks in advance for your help. I’m super appreciative!

Adam

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about adam: Adam O'Hern is an industrial design consultant specializing in visual brand languages, and has designed products ranging from laptops to power tools, classroom toys to bathroom fixtures, and robots to lint rollers. He has published with 3DWorld Magazine, CGTuts+, and Luxology, and works with Josh Mings of SolidSmack.com on EngineerVsDesigner.com.