Patent ID: 7592759

Claim:
A servo driving method to drive a stepping motor driven by a predetermined driving pulse, by a servo control method, comprising: a setting step of setting a driving mode of the stepping motor switchable at least between a first driving mode, in which the stepping motor is driven with a relatively large current, and a second driving mode in which the stepping motor is driven with a relatively small current, a switching step of switching the driving mode between the first driving mode and the second driving mode when a predetermined mode switching information is given: a setting step of setting a predetermined sampling interval; an acquiring step of acquiring control target information at every predetermined sampling interval; and a setting step of setting conditions for generating drive pulses for driving the stepping motor at every predetermined sampling interval based on the acquired control target information, wherein the sampling interval in the first driving mode and the sampling interval in the second driving mode are the same in duration, while a maximum number of drive pulses that can be generated within the duration of the sampling interval is set smaller in the second driving mode than in the first driving mode.