How To Reduce Stepper Motor Heat when Idle

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

I'm using the AccelStepper library to move a model railroad turntable. The stepper uses a standard ULN2003 board to move a 28BYJ-48 stepper.

I have everything working but the stepper gets really hot. There is a lot of idle time between moves.
I heard I can help with this by lowering the idle current to the stepper. I looked over the library again but I'm not sure how to do this.

Here is the library:

Thank you for the help.

2
  • When at idle turn off the current to the coils by setting ALL the inputs to LOW.
3

Or you can use my MobaTools library, which can do this automatically.

4

Just call disableOutputs(). enableOutputs() to re-enable.

http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/AccelStepper/classAccelStepper.html

5

Thanks everyone. This looks like it is just what I need. I'll give it a try.

6

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