It’s the little things…sometimes the VERY little things. So, I’m happy I actually have movement, but after 5 minutes or so of this, the motor becomes almost uncomfortably warm to the touch…is that normal?
Stepper motor is ok to slightly more than 100deg C, then it starts to lose torque. Its really hard to damage the stepper by heat.
Not OK. Turn down the current.
I’d turn down the current a little bit.
Roger, I’ll do that next. Good thing I’ve got a spare motor to test with.
Steppers get hot. Its their nature. You may want to back down your current until you start loosing steps then give it an extra 10% or so though
Is your ‘holding current’ less than the dynamic current ‘stepping current’? Depending on application there may be no need for holding the motor in position and the motor need only be powered to move to a new position.
I can’t tell till I finalize the bearings. Currently, there’s quite a bit of stiction…more than I’m happy with.
Holy COW I can’t believe how right y’all were. I decided I wanted to see the printer running. I removed the monofilament (will be replaced anyway), edited the G-code to not home the servos, and told it to rip.
10 minutes in and the servos are floating around 70C/160F…take the ceramic screwdriver and twist the reference voltage about 1/5th a turn on each servo, let the system cool down and it got immediately quieter, and the motors are all cool to the touch after 20 minutes constant use! So yeah, they’re strong, and can take a lot of heat, but make sure they don’t HAVE to be running quite so hard!
it may be hard to tell from the video, but the adjusted motors were MUCH quieter (and cooler): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR2jRX2WgEw