questions about the dc stepper driver

[jack22]

Hi ,

I'm building a project involving a motor Nema 17 and the stepper motor driver：https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-tb6 ... per-motors

In my project the motor have its step actualized 3 times per second. No power is needed from my motor. It just moves a sign attached to it. My first concern is about the temperature of the motor. It's getting really hot. I have read many subjects all over the web about that, especially from the 3d printing community and there is some adjustement available from drivers, sometimes, like the rated current. Is there a way to set it for this driver ?

It's hard to refresh the position of my motor less than 3 times per second. Do I have to get an other motor ?
Does this driver will work with this motor：https://www.oyostepper.de/goods-292-Nem ... motor.html

[dyarker]

no schematic of driver hardware, or your source code (though I may not know the language anyway)

I'll try a WAG- what is the hold current between steps? If it is the same as the stepping current it would be more power than needed to hold a flag till next step.

Cheers,

[haklesup]

I think Dale is correct, the motor is trying to hold position, but your flag load doesn't need so much power. I picked out a keyword H-Bridge in the description. This suggests the power supply switched by the bridge and leading to the motor may be separate than the one powering the logic in the controller.

https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Rob ... 612FNG.pdf
that would be the VM supply pins on this datasheet. Keep the VCC pin normal


I suggest you simply replace the primary power supply with a lower current source and same voltage and if you can do that only for the H-Bridge supply side then you won't need to worry about choking off the controller if the voltage drops as a result of overcurrent demand. Do you have the pinout or datasheet for the motor controller alone? with min current and voltage satisfied, it should still step and hold but the overall torque should be reduced if the current is limited.

A motor with a different spec may also help. You will want the same hookup but lower torque and lower max current. you might also try a buck boost regulator for the bridge supply. With adjustable voltage and current limits, then you can experiment with the best operating point.

The project is a demonstrator, it's not well designed mechanically speaking. 

[SpeedinRN]

I had a similar issue with a Nema 17 motor getting really hot while working on a project. For your driver, you can usually adjust the current by turning a small potentiometer on the driver itself. Lowering the current can help with the heat if your motor isn’t under heavy load.

Since you’re just moving a sign, you might not need as powerful a motor if you’re finding it hard to refresh the position. If you stick with this setup, tweaking those driver settings should definitely help with the overheating.

That driver should be fine for the motor you’re looking at, but just make sure their specs match up, especially the voltage and current ratings.