Hello from Reno NV.

@olddude

Welcome to the forum, you should be able to get most of your questions answered here.

Yes, a stepper motor will allow stops during rotation.

@will  Thank you so much.  i have been worried that I was not going to be able to solve my problem.  Again, thank you.

Posted by: @olddude

My name is Jim.  I am a total novice in this endeavor.  I have purchased various items which will arrive today so I can begin the learning process.  I am currently using a 24v motor and gears to drive a round plate as part of an invention I am working on.  It is driving me crazy.  I am hopeful that a stepper motor is the solution to my problem.  What I am trying to accomplish is a stepper that will rotate my plate and pause at 60 degree stops.  Therefore I will have 6 stops in a full rotation.  Is this possible? 

A stepper certainly will accomplish what you ask.  But there might be a few caveats that you didn't give enough details to be sure.

Since you have a semi-working design and obviously know about torque (a 24v motor is likely a stout motor) there would be the caveat that if the stepper motor is powerful enough to move what you want.  No... a Nema-17 won't power a real-life train turn-table. 😆 But again... with enough gearing... it just might. 😉 Then it becomes whether the gearing required to physically move it, is fast enough for your design.  

VBR,

Inq

@olddude Just the other day I was looking for a stepper with high torque and discovered motors with built in gearboxes. Just spend some time searching amazon.

@olddude 

No problem. Stepper motors advance by single steps, typically there are 200 steps per rotation (i.e. each step is 1.8 degrees or approximately 0.03142 radians.

So, to turn 60 degrees you would just take (60/360)x200= 33 steps (leaving you a bit short at 59.4 degrees). Hopefully, that error will negligible.

Posted by: @olddude

My name is Jim.  I am a total novice in this endeavor.  I have purchased various items which will arrive today so I can begin the learning process.  I am currently using a 24v motor and gears to drive a round plate as part of an invention I am working on.  It is driving me crazy.  I am hopeful that a stepper motor is the solution to my problem.  What I am trying to accomplish is a stepper that will rotate my plate and pause at 60 degree stops.  Therefore I will have 6 stops in a full rotation.  Is this possible? 

Welcome olddude.

Oh yes, what you describe is certainly possible and should be straight forward enough.

Enjoy your time on the forum and remember  all questions are valid!👍

Regards

Ron B

@ronbentley1 

Ron I just got a message and it caused me to be concerned.  It appears that my requirement of 60 degrees is not possible due to the ratios of the stepper.  Am I wrong about that.  In order for my project to be successful it has to be dead on at 60.  Jim

@will Thank you for your note.  It is a problem being at 59.4.  As my unit will have to rotate 8 hours a day my unit cannot be off by any degree.  So you mentioned steppers with gears, do they give me the accuracy that I have to have?  Jim

@olddude 

You can adjust the step size by introducing gearing or a belt drive. For instance if you have a stepper with 200 steps (not all do by the way) and drive it from a 60 tooth pulley onto a 20 tooth pulley, you can adjust the step count to 600 (=3x200) steps/rotation.

Then, your 60 degrees = 100 steps.

Edit:

To be clear, the 20 tooth pulley is on the stepper and the 60 tooth gear is on the tool, so the stepper has to rotate 3 times for the tool to rotate once, hence the 3x200 steps to turn the tool 1 rotation.

@inq  Thank you for your input.  I have hit a problem with this and that is that the stepper cannot do exactly 60 degrees, but comes up short at 59.4.  Since my turn table must be exact I am not sure of what to do?  Will a geared stepper solve the problem of exactly 60 degrees?  Jim

@olddude 

Hmm, you may be correct about that which is a surprise to me. From what I can glean the typical stepper rotational increment looks to be 1.8 degrees which certainly would not deliver a 60 degree rotation.

It may be worth posting to the forum community to see if they may have a simple solution.

Cheers

Ron B

@will Got it and thank you.  Problem solved.  Jim

@olddude 

There's usually a sneaky way around these things. And not all steppers have 200 steps/revolution either, so you may find one that suits your needs directly, without any intermediate machinery.

Posted by: @olddude

@inq  Thank you for your input.  I have hit a problem with this and that is that the stepper cannot do exactly 60 degrees, but comes up short at 59.4.  Since my turn table must be exact I am not sure of what to do?  Will a geared stepper solve the problem of exactly 60 degrees?  Jim

1. Let me know which stepper motor you're using.
2. Do you have ANY tolerance at all?  Even Aerospace the Hubble/JWT have some tolerances down in the nano-meters range.  🤣  Even gears have back-lash tolerances.
3. For instance are you concerned about each 60 degree increment being off or that it might accumulate and be off tens of degrees after multiple revolutions?

VBR,

Inq