Electrical – 1/256 microstepping stepper motor

microsteppingstepper motor

I am currently working on project that uses the spectrum created by the diffraction grating. I am using a stepper motor to rotate my grating. I want the stepper motor to move exactly 0.01 degrees and wait for detector to take the reading. After the detector is done taking the readings, again rotate for 0.01 degrees and repeat the above procedure.

I have been searching through the internet to find a stepper motor that rotates only 0.01 degrees but so far i have no success. After searching for a while, i found that microstepping will help me achieving the required angle but i am not sure about it.

Best Answer

Do you want the good news first, or the bad?

The bad news is that what you are asking for is not available.

The good news is that what you need (rather than what you asked for) is available. On eBay. It's called a "motorized rotary stage". An example would be this unit, which has a data sheet here, although the unit for sale is apparently an older unit which does not exactly correspond to the data sheet. At a guess, though, it will do much better than you need.

And eBay has a lot of this sort of unit. Of course, as in this case they are often old, unsupported, and you'll have to learn how to work with proprietary interfaces.

If you're more adventurous (that is, wealthy), various companies such as Thorlabs and Newport will gladly sell you new units much better than you need. Well, and almost certainly more expensive than you can afford, but you didn't set price limits in your question.