A stepper motor is a brushless, synchronous electric motor that turns digital pulses into mechanical shaft rotation. Every time the stepper motor makes a full turn, it's divided into a set number of steps—usually about 200 steps. You need to send a separate pulse for each step. The cool thing is that the motor can only move one step at a time, and each step is the same size. Since each pulse rotates the motor by a precise angle—typically 1.8°—you can control the motor's position without needing any feedback. When the digital pulses speed up, the step movement turns into continuous rotation, and the rotation speed directly depends on the pulse frequency. Stepper motors are super common in both industrial and commercial uses because they’re affordable, reliable, have high torque at low speeds, and have a simple, sturdy design that works well in almost any environment.

Advantages of Stepper Motors
They convert a non-linear input signal into a linear output signal, which is often needed for thermocouple signals.
The rotation angle of the motor matches the input pulse.
The motor has full torque when it's not moving (as long as the windings are powered).
They provide precise positioning and repeatability since good stepper motors can be accurate to within 3 to 5% of a step, and this error doesn’t pile up from one step to the next.
They respond excellently to starting, stopping, and reversing.
They’re very reliable because there are no contact brushes in the motor. So, the motor’s lifespan mainly depends on the bearing's life.
The stepper motors respond to digital pulses, which gives open-loop control, making them easier and cheaper to control.
You can achieve very low-speed synchronous rotation with a load directly attached to the shaft.
A wide range of rotational speeds can be realized since speed is proportional to the input pulse frequency.
Types of Step Motors
There are three main types of step motors: variable reluctance, permanent magnet, and hybrid. We'll focus on hybrid motors because they combine the best features of both variable reluctance and permanent magnet motors. They have multi-toothed stator poles and a permanent magnet rotor. Standard hybrid motors usually have 200 rotor teeth and rotate at 1.8° step angles. Because they have high static and dynamic torque and can run at very high step rates, hybrid step motors are widely used in commercial applications like computer disk drives, printers/plotters, and CD players. They’re also used in various industrial and scientific applications, including robotics, machine tools, pick and place machines, automated wire cutting and bonding machines, and even precise fluid control devices.

Step Modes
Stepper motor "step modes" include Full, Half, and Microstep. The type of step mode output of a stepper motor depends on the driver design. Omegamation™ offers drives with switch-selectable full and half step modes, as well as microstepping drives with either switch-selectable or software-selectable resolutions.

FULL STEP
Standard hybrid stepping motors have 200 rotor teeth, meaning they make 200 full steps for one full revolution. Dividing those 200 steps into 360° means each full step equals 1.8°. Typically, you achieve full step mode by powering both windings while reversing the current alternately. Essentially, one digital pulse from the driver equals one step.

HALF STEP
Half step means the step motor rotates at 400 steps per revolution. In this mode, one winding is energized, followed by alternating energizing of two windings, which makes the rotor move half the distance, or 0.9°. While it has about 30% less torque, half-step mode creates smoother motion compared to full-step mode.

MICROSTEPPING
Microstepping is a newer technology that controls the current in the motor winding to further subdivide the number of positions between poles. Omegamation’s microstepping drives can break a full step (1.8°) down into 256 microsteps, resulting in 51,200 steps per revolution (which is about .007° per step). This is usually used in applications needing accurate positioning and smoother motion across various speeds. Similar to half-step mode, microstepping provides about 30% less torque than full-step mode.

Linear Motion Control
You can convert the rotary motion of a stepper motor into linear motion using a lead screw/worm gear drive system. The lead, or pitch, of the lead screw is how far it moves in one full revolution. If the lead is one inch per revolution, and there are 200 full steps, then the resolution is 0.005 inches per step. You can get even finer resolution with the step motor/drive system in microstepping mode.

Series vs. Parallel Connection
You can connect a stepper motor in either series or parallel. A series connection gives you high inductance, which means greater torque at low speeds. On the other hand, a parallel connection lowers the inductance, giving you increased torque at higher speeds.

Driver Technology Overview
The stepper motor driver gets step and direction signals from the indexer or control system and turns them into electrical signals to run the step motor. You need one pulse for each step of the motor shaft. In full step mode with a standard 200-step motor, you need 200 step pulses to complete one revolution. The rotation speed is directly tied to the pulse frequency. Some drivers even have an onboard oscillator, letting you use an external analog signal or joystick to set the motor speed.