What is the difference between wave drive,full step and half step modes of stepper motor. Which of them is most efficient in terms of power consumption and efficiency? Which of them gives a smoother operation and how the coding changes with the mode
In this drive method only a single phase is activated at a time. It has the same number of steps as the full step drive, but the motor will have significantly less than rated torque. It is rarely used.
Full step drive (two phases on)
This is the usual method for full step driving the motor. Two phases are always on. The motor will have full rated torque.
Half stepping
When half stepping, the drive alternates between two phases on and a single phase on. This increases the angular resolution, but the motor also has less torque (approx 70%) at the half step position (where only a single phase is on). This may be mitigated by increasing the current in the active winding to compensate. The advantage of half stepping is that the drive electronics need not change to support it. You may acess all issue at URL below. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor
