Greenwatts

Schematic L6221A

This circuit controls a stepper motor with a L6221A IC. The power supply from a printer can be used to supply the DC voltages. Tie all the ground pins on the Centronics connector to ground. Be carfull when hooking up the system to your PC. The PC parallel port can be damaged quite easily if you make incorrect connections. A good idea is to buy an inexpensive I/O card which has a parallel port and use it for your tracker. The L6221A chip can be found in many older inkjet printers. You can also easily adapt a floppy drive PCB for the same purpose.

Here is a good site that explains the basics of using a parrallel port of a PC to control a stepper motor. Code Projects. We do not have any customized software to run the Canuckle solar tracker as of yet. We would appriciate any information on any available program on the net.