This is a rendering of my 2 axis plankton feeder. I has another wheel, like to white one shown here, at the other end of the 8 foot rail.
I have a stepper motor that was given to me but I don't think that it is working at its best. It is not running as well as the last time that I tested it. When I take the wire off and turn it manually, the drag is not constant as it makes a full rotation.
The motor was being tested in the assembly without having to move the carriage. It just has to drive wire around the two wheels that are 8 feet apart. There is very little drag on the system. The other wheel spins freely, even under a side load.
That being said, when I run the assembly, it does not running well. It is slow and chatters. Given the same amount of power from the driver, should I go with a motor that is bigger or smaller?
The motor that I now have is a 57BYG084/1.8 Step Angle/12V/4 phase/0.6A per/100ohm(500VDC)/20ohm per/Class B/25mH Inductance per/Rotor inertia 38g.cm2/holding torque 6Kg.cm
It is powered by an Arduino Mega 2560 with a Rugged Stepper Motor Driver. It does not have a micro-step mode.The spec.(s) on the driver say that it has a Peak DC current per phase of 2.8A. I am running it at 30V from a printer adapter. It supplies 0.83A which could be part of the problem as well. ? Would a 30V 5A adapter improve the situation and be safe to use?
I am wondering if I should buy the same motor or go with a different size, either bigger or smaller?
I use this code for MaxRPM:
int maxRPM = 150; // Top running speed of main stepper
instead of 300
and it still chatters and can barely turns the cable. Besides the potentially ailing motor, do you think that a bigger or smaller motor would perform better, powered by the Rugged Stepper Motor Driver, should I just buy the same thing new?