Stepper Motor Vibration

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

I'm trying to build a motorized camera slider but my stepper motor vibrates too much at slow speeds.

I have a vibration dampener on top of my Nema 17 Stepper Motor connected to a CNC Shield on top of an Uno board powered by 8 AA batteries making it a 12v.

Vibration dampener - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07861DKF8
Stepper Motor - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0817TH4LK
CNC Shield and Uno - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QJ3TPCB

This is my test code:

#include <AccelStepper.h>

AccelStepper stepper1(1, 2, 5);

void setup() {  
  stepper1.setMaxSpeed(400);
  stepper1.setSpeed(25);
}

void loop() {
  stepper1.runSpeed();
}

Is it normal to have this much vibration or is something wrong with my code/equipment? Thanks!

2

Are you using microstepping? If not try it - its should greatly reduce the vibration.

Another option is to connect the motor to the drive with a toothed belt, and maybe put a flywheel on the drive (not on the motor).

At the end of the day stepper motors step :slight_smile:

...R

3

This is going to sound dumb... but what's microstepping? I'm using a A4988 DMOS Micro stepping Driver. Thanks

4

The stepper motor probably has 200 full steps per revolution. The stepper driver can make the motor move a half or a quarter (etc) step at a time. An A4988 can do 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16th microstepping.

If you select (for example) 1/8th microstepping it will require 1600 steps to complete one revolution. Obviously, if you don't change the step rate it will also go 8 times slower.

I think there are jumpers (under the A4988?) on the CNC shield that allow you to select the micro-stepping.

...R

5

That makes sense, thank you!!