Hi All, I have an Acro 1510 that I recently set up and the steppers get quite hot after an hour of use. How hot? >> about as hot as a mug warmer... too hot to hold for more than a few seconds but not hot enough to soften the acrylic gantry plates Do I need to adjust the current going from the blackbox controller to the steppers? I'm currently running it with the defaults. Thanks!
Ideally adjusting the current is a step in the commissioning process: OpenBuilds BlackBox 4X Documentation but do note some warmth is normal, when the motor sits idle in the braked condition the coils stay powered. Heat is OK, too much is not. But for an Acro, you can usually turn it down quite a bit, as its not a very heavy gantry. Just turn current high enough that you can get the top speeds you use often without stalling
Thanks! I just ran a few tests, dialed each of the motors down to their minimum current and they are operating fine, a bit quieter and a lot cooler.
Hey guys. Haven’t been on in a loooong time. Finally getting around to fooling with my small acro. Running the Nema 17’s with a Gradus M1 board and 8825 stepper sticks. After a short test run the motors were smoking hot. Like couldn’t hold them for more than a second. Checked the steppers and they were around .68 to .71 amps. Any idea why the motors are cooking? thanks, Paul
Adjust the current down, the VREF calculation may be incorrect above, our NEMA17s are rated 1.7A (max) so shouldnt be that warm with just 700mA on them)
Well, checked the x and two y steppers and they’re the same but doh! .7 volts so I guess that would be 1.4a correct?? These aren’t Openbuilds nemas either so maybe won’t take quite the current?
Dropped voltage down to .45 so looking at just under an amp on the motors and they seem to run quite a bit cooler. Still pretty warm after a couple minutes of work but you can easily hold on to them. Before they were smoking hot. I’ll have to wait til I laser something up to see if they’re missing steps at all. Thanks, Paul
