Cheap easy beginners robot projects for Pi

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A friend, a retired electrician, wants to experiment with robotics and control of stepper motors. I have Pi 5, Pi 4, and Pi Zero 2 plus breadboards jumper leads but nothing with a stepper motor and no clue what to do next. My experience is pushing a resistor and LED into the breadboard. What project should we tackle first for least cost and least learning?

As a kid, I used meccano. Adding stepping motors and programming would have been superb fun but I think the best chip back then was the Intel 4004. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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First get a stepper motor and a driver board and a good power supply. The nature of stepper motors is they are drawing current all the time, the usual Pi supply is not good enough.
This is a good one but expensive, cheaper ones are just not worth it.

This driver board should work if connected correctly and has a connection for the power to the stepper motor. GPIO interface to Pi. But there are many others some using I2C so not as many connecting pins. VMOT can be 6V to 30V, the linked stepper motor works of 12V 0.33A

Care should be taken to connect the wires in the correct phase between the stepper motor and the driver board.

Once you have an idea how the motor works and the different step rates you could look for a project to make something move.

Regards
Jim

PS: 12V 1A or 2A plug pack power supply could be used for the VMOT connection.

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Thank you for the suggestions. When I clicked through to the motor, I noticed a video re actuators
and started watching. Will watch some more.

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The first video is excellent. Working out everything in kilograms.

Looking at expendable beginner items for waving a paper flag around or something similar, mainly to teach myself Python, I may start with:
Micro Metal Geared Stepper Motor (12V 0.6kg.cm) | Buy in Australia | FIT0503 | DFRobot | Core Electronics $12
Makerverse Motor Driver 2 Channel | Buy in Australia | CE08038 | Core Electronics $7

After I know more and can measure up an actual project, I will donate the cheap bits to other learners and step up to a better stepper.

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@Peter181516 Good choice of parts.
Never had a problem with Micro Metal Gear motors, they work very well.
The Makerverse range is very good too. I have used that board to drive two motors in an RC cart but not a stepper motor. Its just a matter of getting the software correct.

All the best.

Cheers
Jim

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Your best source for expendable steppers would be a junked printer or scanner.

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Hey @Peter181516 (and friend),

Great to see you diving into robotics and stepper motors! Starting with simple, affordable parts and building up your skills is the perfect approach.

Here are some beginner-friendly guides and projects from Core Electronics that you might find really useful:

Also, if you’re thinking about hardware, the Adafruit DC & Stepper Motor HAT for Raspberry Pi is a great way to simplify wiring and control.

A few tips:

  • Start with a simple project like rotating the motor a fixed number of steps via Python/C to get comfortable with the basics.
  • Use a separate power supply for your stepper motor to avoid overloading the microcontroller.
  • Take it slow and experiment, stepper motors are fun but do need a bit of patience to get everything right.

Feel free to ask if you want help with code examples or wiring diagrams!

Happy building!

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Hi Peter, quite a while ago I came from the programming side wanting to play with robotics via BOE-BOT and Raspberry Pi v1 when that was released. Not knowing anything much about electronics I bought several Raspberry Pi HATs and Bonnets which make it real easy to add various types of devices since half the interfacing is done for you.

Raspberry Pi was pretty much designed for education, and the RaspberryPi website has lots of resources, including a monthly magazine (and back-issues) which you can download as a PDF for free - though you may have to wait a few weeks after the hardcopy is published. Issue 150 included an overview of 150 Projects & People which might give some inspiration :wink:

Core Electronics stocks many Raspberry Pi boards and accessories from Raspberry Pi, Adafruit, DFRobot, and many of the reputable makers. I have bought items from overseas, but decided the slightly higher price from Core is offset by convenience of a one-stop-shop with quick delivery and local support.

I also personally prefer breakout boards and i2c communications to quickly and easily add a component such as a Capacitive Touch Sensor, Temperature/Humidity sensor or Tripple-axis Accelerometer to a breadboard, rather than attempting to solder the individual components.

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