Steppers
Steppers here split into NEMA-frame bipolar motors, geared 24BYJ48-class unipolars and the driver boards that set microstepping — plus the couplers and mounts that make them useful in a real rig.
NEMA-8 and NEMA-17-class bipolar steppers, 5V/12V geared reduction steppers (24BYJ48, 32-step 1/16), driver boards (Easy Driver V4.5, TMC260, TB6600), and shaft couplers, leadscrew and timing pulley hardware.
- Adafruit's 200-step NEMA-8 mini and Waveshare's SM24240 two-phase motor are the bipolar branch; the 24BYJ48 and the 5V/12V 32-step 1/16-geared reduction steppers are cheap unipolar units for light loads.
- DFRobot's bipolar stepper with planetary gearbox reaches 18kg.cm — gearing trades speed for torque the same way it does on DC gearmotors.
- Drivers in-group: Easy Driver V4.5, the TMC260 stepper driver shield for Arduino, FireBeetle's DC motor & stepper cover, and PiStep2 plus the RPi Motor Driver Board for Raspberry Pi.
- The mechanical half matters: 5–8mm flexible couplers, NEMA 17 dampers, mounting brackets, a leadscrew with brass nut and 5mm timing pulleys are all sized for standard NEMA shafts.
