Patent ID: 7323844

Claim:
A circuit for the control of a stepper motor, the circuit comprising: a plurality of stepper motors connected to each other, each stepper motor having a rotor including a permanent magnet, a stator including at least a first and a second excitation coil generally enclosing the rotor; the first excitation coils of each stepper motor being connected to the positive pole of the supply voltage and being serially connected to each other, a connection node defined between neighboring first excitation coils and each free end terminal of an outer one of the first excitation coils being connected to the positive pole of the supply voltage over one switching element; the second excitation coils of each stepper motor being connected to the negative pole of the supply voltage and being serially connected to each other, a connection node defined between neighboring second excitation coils and being connected over one switching element to a negative pole of the supply voltage, each free end terminal of an outer one of the second excitation coils being connected to the negative pole of the supply voltage over one switching element; and a central contact of each of the first and second excitation coils being connected to each other.