I am making a photography turntable powered by a 17HS08-1004S stepper motor, which was working but no longer does correctly. It is run from a 12 volt 1A supply via a TB6600 driver. I initially tried to run it on a belt but could not get the tension correct, so swaped to 3D printed gears, which work much mor consistently.
The problems I am having are:-
when stepping the motor sounds very noisy like a machine gun.
When paused and holding the motor sounds like radio static, or fat sizzling in a hot frying pan.
Can't seem to get the number of steps per rev correct, the driver is set to 200 steps (ON ON OFF), the stepper gear has 8 teeth and the turntable has 31 teeth, my software is set to 775 steps per turntable rev, i.e. 200 x (31 / 8).
Do I need a new motor, more powerful than the slimline one I have, is the crackling sound the motor makes arcing, or just the hard working elf who drives the motor frying his bacon sandwiches?
Many thanks for any advice.
@anon57585045
No, TB6600 is a current controlled stepper driver, and as long as you use it correctly, the rated voltage of the motor is almost irrelevant.
@mikem1
Does the TB6600 use a bare chip and make driver circuits yourself?
Or are you using a modular motor driver?
If so, can you provide a link for your motor driver?
Also, please provide a schematic of your connection.
Motor and driver connected correctly, Dir +- and Pul +- , 4 motor wires to A+- and B +- as per fact sheet colours checed with voltmeter, don't know what you mean about 'bare chip' and 'modular motor driver' the TB6600 is the motor driver.
The motor does not have a DIP switch, on the driver I have set ON ON OFF, ON OFF ON, which translates to microstep 1 - 200 pulses/rev for SW1-3 and 1amp for SW4-6
This represents the current for one coil of the motor, and since the bipolar stepper motor has two coils, it consumes twice the current as the set value.
In reality, it consumes power supplied by PWM and affected by the coil resistance and inductance of the motor.
Probably, the 12V/1A power supply can't be supply enough power.
Can you try a larger power supply? For example, something like 24V/3A...
But since the TB6600 is a switching current driver, the coil current is not the current from the power source. 3.5 ohms per coil and 1A means 3.5 W per coil or 7 W total. It may be a little bit more if it turns and is heavily loaded. A 12V/1A power supply can deliver 12W, so it should be enough, even taking into account the power dissipation in the driver. It's not really much, but it should work.
I don't know how big the internal buffer capacitor of the TB6600 is. It might help to have an extra buffer capacitor at the input of the TB6600 to handle current spikes that the PSU might limit if it is a regulated PSU.
To reduce operating noise, consider microstepping.
Thanks both for the replies. I have a converted computer supply which is good for 10+A at 12V, this gives the same result. Changing the stepping to 400 is a bit smoother and quieter, but the static noise is still present when the motor is holding in some places, and quite loud - is this normal? The motor seems to have very low torque both when holding and stepping, I would have expected more! The driver has two 400 step settings, one is '2/A' the other '2/B' what does this meam?
You should be using a decent level of microstepping, x8 or x16 are good places to start. The clue is in the word "stepper" - the motor moves in discrete steps - make the steps smaller, the noise and vibration will be less.
Completely normal, this is the constant current circuit adjusting its duty cycle, and the motor windings are vibrating directly due to this. Some chips switch at a higher rate and the noise is more in the ultrasonic range, some motors are better made (more impregnation in the windings) and are quieter.
The high levels of noise you report suggest the motor is bolted onto a resonant metal frame - perhaps adding damping to the frame will reduce the noise too.
Belt drive is usually significantly quieter than leadscrew drive.
Many thanks Mark for your reassurances on this topic, vital information much needed as I am new to stepper motors.
I will change up to microstepping and damp the vibrations with a heavy duty rubber gasket. Also I have, on order, another driver and a larger stepper motor, which should give a bit more torque and hopefully be of better quality.
The sound I get from the motor is vastly different from my Ender 3 printer, which also uses NEMA17 and purrs quietly.
I plan to make an MPCNC so the extra driver will be used, but I suspect the motor will go in the spares box.