Stepper Motor Arc Reactor

Step 3 Prep the Stator Coils

The stator of the stepper motor consists of a number of coils of wire. The stepper motor I got my hands on was an 8-pole, 3-phase motor, meaning that there were 3 sets of 8 coils wired together in series around the stator. With the turns in a given coil touching each other, it is important that short-circuits do not occur in the coil turns. Therefore, the copper wire in the coils is coated in a thin layer of insulation that is meant to prevent electrical flow across turns of the coil.

When constructing our arc reactor, we will be soldering leds to the coils of the stepper motor. When soldering, depending on the insulation and heat of the iron, it is possible that the soldering process will burn away the insulation on the wires. Because of this, it is desirable to cut all the wires that link the led coils to any other coil, so as to not inadvertently short out an led or wire leds together incorrectly.

Once you have either of the 2 coils for a given led electrically isolated (all the wires connecting it to other coils removed), go ahead an add some solder to the coil (it will make applying the led much much easier down the road).

Once you have both coils electrically isolated and soldered, proceed to the next step, in which we will add an led to the coil.