28BYJ-48 5V Mini Stepper Motor Unipolar

The 28BYJ-48 is the small stepper motor nearly every hobbyist meets first, mainly because its internal 64:1 gear reduction gives it real torque at a size and price a direct-drive stepper of similar cost simply cannot match. That gearing trades top speed for precision - it turns at roughly 15 RPM - which is exactly the right trade for the tasks it usually ends up doing: positioning something accurately rather than spinning it fast.

It runs on 5V and ships as a 5-wire unipolar motor, meaning it needs a driver board like a ULN2003 between it and a microcontroller rather than direct GPIO connection - the motor's own coils draw more current than a GPIO pin can safely supply. Step angle is 5.625 degrees before the gearbox, translating to very fine effective resolution after the 64:1 reduction.

Common builds are camera pan-tilt mounts, small CNC or plotter axes, automated blind or valve controllers, and any project needing accurate low-speed rotational positioning rather than raw speed.