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I'm planning to build a simple XY plotter, and have been looking at the possibility of using a pair of small 5V 4-phase steppers to provide the movement. In my research, I've often seen stepper driver boards advertised, ranging from very big and expensive, through to quite small and cheap. Some of them actually look like little more than a darlington array on a PCB.
Do I really need one of those external driver boards, or can I control the steppers directly from my Arduino?
Generally, stepper motors cannot be controlled by an Arduino pin. They have a current draw of over the 20mA any single pin can supply.
Kickback is also a problem. Because the motors have moving magnetic parts inside, they will continue to generate electricity after power has been cut. this will almost certainly cause enough negative voltage that is enough to fry your Arduino.
A solution is to use a motor driver chip or shield. This one is a good example. These have transistor based chips that can drive enough current to power a motor, and diodes to mitigate the kickback from the motors.
