@George_Allen I ran a test using one of the newer TB109 drives on Friday. Set at max current driving a nema34. No fan cooling, just sitting on the desk, 25c ambient temp. After an hour, the heatsink hit 65c and still ran just fine. 24volt Power supply. It got to hot to touch but didn’t blow. Point a fan to the drivers and it will be perfectly fine.
My older TB6600 got pretty warm while running too.
@George_Allen what current setting are your stepper motors?
Here’s image. Some reasons the above attachment wasn’t right.
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Probably 3.5 amps. I am going to switch to my meanwell PSU. It’s only 24V and 350 watts, but can deliver up to 14 amps, I think
@George_Allen One thing you should do is check the current your stepper motors are drawing. You do that by putting a meter in line with one of the motor coils while your system is powered down. We discussed not disconnecting stepper motors while things are running previously.
Now here’s the tricky part. You need to step slowly to find the peak current draw in your step sequence. Just set your controller up to travel very slowly and peck jog. You’ll see the current going up and down as you stop. Then after a few times you should be able to determine your high current reading. After you’ve seen the values going up and down.
Your high reading is your current setting. Though some drives have low current holding circuits in them. So this method won’t exactly work on them. But your TB6600 drives don’t. I’m not sure about the Geckos. They might have current reducing hold circuits in them?
Another thing you can do is use an analog meter and check a drives whole draw. But there you’re not going to come up with a precise value. It is still an educational thing to do to see how current draw changes with step rate.
I could tell you what happens but it is better if you see it for yourself. Then it will be more real for you.
@Paul_Frederick ok. Will do. Thanks. I’m currently taking my electronics down to the Makerspace where I’ll need to reconnect them and my computer. It’s a process for me.
@George_Allen it’s a process for everybody. When I started I started at the beginning of the process too. Back then stepper motor drives were just too expensive so I made my own. So I really started at the starting point. That made me learn more about stepper drives than most bother to. At one point all of my electronics outside the PC I’d made. But these TB6600 drives perform better than my drives did so I upgraded to them. Plus I can’t make drives for as cheap as they are. My drives cost me $10 a piece to make. My TB6600s were shipped to my door for $8.47 a pop. So now I have the drives I made sitting in a box and I’ll probably never use them again. But I still have everything I learned from making them I suppose? Which ain’t nothing https://www.instructables.com/id/TB6560-Microstepping-Bipolar-Chopper-Stepper-Motor/
