I have read the post on motor basics a couple of times. It says the rated motor amperage is per coil. Since the electrical diagrams all show the 4 wire motor with two coils I have assumed that it has two coils. Does this mean then that if the motor is rated at 2.8 amps then the load on the motor driver is actually 5.6 amps? I am using a motor controller that is rated at 5 amps. Will I burn this controller up with my motor? The motor driver has a table on it that shows switch settings for various amperage levels. Not knowing any better I assumed that these settings limit the amps to whatever you set. I have set the switches for 2.5 amps. Is the motor controller too small or the right size. The controller is a HY-DIV268N-5A. The following link is my main source of information on this motor driver. Haydn’s Maker Blog .
Does this mean then that if the motor is rated at 2.8 amps then the load on the motor driver is actually 5.6 amps?
Yes.
I am using a motor controller that is rated at 5 amps. Will I burn this controller up with my motor?
That link says:-
In addition it has programmable current limits,
So it limits the current to what you have programmed so it can not exceed it's maximum. So no you will not burn up the controller but the motor will not be able to be stepped as fast as it otherwise would have with the correct drive.
The following link is my main source of information on this motor driver.
A quick read leaves me with the impression that he knows little about electronics.
Grumpy_Mike:
Yes.That link says:-So it limits the current to what you have programmed so it can not exceed it's maximum. So no you will not burn up the controller but the motor will not be able to be stepped as fast as it otherwise would have with the correct drive.
If the rating is 2.8 amps per coil and the motor driver is designed for two coils would it be reasonable to expect that the rating on it is per coil or is this expecting too much?
Here is a very poor data sheet for that driver. My reading indicates 5 amperes per winding, maximum. The datasheet also provides a schematic for one method to wire up the driver inputs.
You can use this driver with motor power supplies of up to 48 V, which would allow very fast stepping with a low impedance (0.3 - 5 Ohm) motor.
hswaters:
If the rating is 2.8 amps per coil and the motor driver is designed for two coils would it be reasonable to expect that the rating on it is per coil or is this expecting too much?
If as you say:-
have set the switches for 2.5 amps.
Then this will be per coil.
Thanks for all the help guys. Every time I ask a question here I get a little bit more knowledge.
hswaters:
Every time I ask a question here I get a little bit more knowledge.
That is what we aim to do.
Some how I feel that I have gotten off to a bad start on the power and motor driver. From my reading I was lead to believe I wanted my power supply should be 10 or 20 times the motors rated voltage so I got a 48 volt power supply. And the motor driver I chose was rated for that voltage. After very little use the motor driver burned up. This lead me to start to look for a better motor driver. I saw that the polulu (sp?) motor drivers are rated for a lot more amperage than the one I bought but they are limited to about 16 volts. So there I am sort of at a loss with mismatched parts. Before I start over with something else what do you suggest? My stepper motor draws 2.8 amps and it is the only part I don't see a need to change. I have a wall wart to power the arduino. On the motor controller I read in another place where a fellow had bought I think 3 of them and one burned up and the other two are working fine so since it is cheap I ordered another one.
You need to choose a motor with sufficient torque for your application. Then you need to choose a driver to suit that motor. And then choose a power supply that is compatible with the driver.
Most stepper drivers have the ability to adjust the current to match the motor's requirement - that is essential if you are using a high voltage because otherwise a low-ohms motor would draw far too much current from the high voltage .
I suspect you are not looking at Pololu stepper drivers. Their A4988 and DRV8825 cannot provide 2.8 amps, but they can work with 35v IIRC. Do NOT use a h-bridge driver no matter what the sales blurb tells you.
For a 2.8 amp motor you will need a small commercial (and more expensive) stepper driver that can handle 3 or 4 amps. The bigger drivers will probably work with your 48v power supply. Gecko and Leadshine are two of the brands.
I assume the reference to "the post on motor basics" in your Original Post refers to stepper motor basics - I mention it just in case I am incorrectly assuming what you have been reading.
...R
At that price I'm not surprized it blew up - you should be paying more like $100 for
a commercial stepper driver. They will have skimped on protection circuitry and
component ratings - running it at the maximum quoted voltage was asking for
failure.
Looking at the chip they use it has a total resistance of 0.4ohms, so its not
a discrete MOSFET design (which is what you get for your $100 driver) so
will run very hot at its 5A max. It also has an abs max voltage of 50V,
so clearly not at all suitable for 48V supply. You don't go near abs max
ratings in normal operation. Expect 10V or more of spiking on the supply
for a motor driver, suggests 36V as a sensible max supply for that chip.
MarkT:
At that price I'm not surprized it blew up - you should be paying more like $100 for
a commercial stepper driver. They will have skimped on protection circuitry and
component ratings - running it at the maximum quoted voltage was asking for
failure.Looking at the chip they use it has a total resistance of 0.4ohms, so its not
a discrete MOSFET design (which is what you get for your $100 driver) so
will run very hot at its 5A max. It also has an abs max voltage of 50V,
so clearly not at all suitable for 48V supply. You don't go near abs max
ratings in normal operation. Expect 10V or more of spiking on the supply
for a motor driver, suggests 36V as a sensible max supply for that chip.
Well it appears that I get to start over with the whole thing anyway. Maybe I will make a better choice of components this time around. When the driver burned up I checked the motor for shorts to the case in the hope that would tell me if it was damaged or not. I did not see any at that time but now that I have the replacement driver I find that the motor is also damaged. My first clue was when I ran it a short time and stopped it and then touched it to see if it was hot. Touching the motor made it start to run. So I checked continuity from the windings to the case again and yes I got continuity from both coils to the case. The only survivor was the Arduino clone from Micro Center. Thanks for the good advice.
That driver appears to be based on the Toshiba TB6600. Maximum recommended voltage is 42V / 4.5A.