Our NEMA 17 stepper motor draws only 0.5A causing it to operate really loudly. It should be drawing 1.5A. We're using a L298N motor driver, an arduino uno and a 12V power supply. Our team is really inexperienced with electronics so any help would be appreciated!
Well, that's a good photo of a wiring ratsnest, which is almost impossible to make head nor tail of.
How about an "as built" circuit diagram.
Show as much detail as possible.
Might be a good idea to include your code as well using the proper code tags as in how to post.
Sorry this was the only picture I have of the circuit as we have left the design space for today. We followed exactly the followed the circuit shown here (triple checked it and everything) so I doubt it's the circuit. Screenshot - 43cc3d969015c36a14e08bd83b26e0fd - Gyazo
A colleague of ours suggested using A4988 instead. Could the reason be the motor driver?
I've deleted your other cross posts @AwaisMcGill.
Cross posting is against the rules of the forum. The reason is that duplicate posts can waste the time of the people trying to help. Someone might spend 15 minutes writing a detailed answer on this thread, without knowing that someone else already did the same in the other thread.
Repeated cross posting will result in a suspension from the forum.
In the future, please take some time to pick the forum section that best suits the topic of your question and then only post once to that forum section. This is basic forum etiquette, as explained in the sticky "How to use this forum - please read." post you will find at the top of every forum section. It contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
AwaisMcGill:
Our NEMA 17 stepper motor draws only 0.5A causing it to operate really loudly. It should be drawing 1.5A. We're using a L298N motor driver, an arduino uno and a 12V power supply. Our team is really inexperienced with electronics so any help would be appreciated!
Can you please tell us how you determined the motor only draws 0.5 amperes? And what equipment did you use?
Paul
An L298 is a poor choice for driving a stepper motor. A specialized stepper driver such as the DRV8825 would be much better. The Pololu website has lots of info about them. Specialized stepper drivers can limit the current to protect the motor and allow higher voltages to be used.
Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
Please read the first post in any forum entitled how to use this forum.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,148850.0.html .
OPs image.
Can you tell us your electronics, programming, arduino, hardware experience?
Tom...
Paul_KD7HB:
Can you please tell us how you determined the motor only draws 0.5 amperes? And what equipment did you use?Paul
We connected the ampere meter in series with the input of the motor driver. We are using 18 gage wire for the power lines. Our motor is doing what we programmed it to do - just with very loud noise and quite a bit of vibration. We are using it for a belt and pulley system (so there is a bit of radial load on the stepper motor shaft).
Stepper motors are loud and they vibrate. Especially when in single step mode. Have you experienced other stepper motors? Is the motor missing steps?
Digital Multimeters will average their input. The power to the motor is pulsed so the meter will show the average, not peak, current to the motors.
AwaisMcGill:
We connected the ampere meter in series with the input of the motor driver. We are using 18 gage wire for the power lines. Our motor is doing what we programmed it to do - just with very loud noise and quite a bit of vibration. We are using it for a belt and pulley system (so there is a bit of radial load on the stepper motor shaft).
Did you consider the power draw is PULSED? Each motor movement is caused by a pulse of current.
You really need to use an oscilloscope to see the pattern in the power.
Paul
TomGeorge:
Can you tell us your electronics, programming, arduino, hardware experience?
Tom...
Literally none, we are mechanical engineering students.
AwaisMcGill:
Literally none, we are mechanical engineering students.
Please also answer the other questions you have been asked.
...R
The ancient, weak L298 is totally unsuitable for a 1.5 A stepper.
Pololu has a good selection of modern stepper drivers.
Paul_KD7HB:
Did you consider the power draw is PULSED? Each motor movement is caused by a pulse of current.
If you stop the motor you'd get a nice and stable current to measure. The L298N makes it easy as you're guaranteed at a full step, it can't do any better
groundFungus:
Stepper motors are loud and they vibrate. Especially when in single step mode.
The TCM2208 and TCM2209 controllers take care of that part really nicely. Especially with 32x or 64x microstepping.
I just did a project much like that and the L298N is a poor choice I found out - and it gets super hot. I switched to an A4988 driver and the thing doesn't even get warm and the stepper runs much smoother.