- Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:21 pm
#160569
Hi All,
Hey, I'm on a project right now that uses a bunch of BED to power Nema 17 stepper motors. We've been having trouble with these board bursting into flame. At first, we found that that current pots were shipped pegged to full on. On power up, they would fry with an exciting orange flame. We were able to solve that by turning the pots all the way counter clockwise and adjusting them from there. It's still kinda wierd, because we running within the spec'd voltage limits and boards will burst into flame even without any motor attached. We're running the power supply to the +M and GND pins for the stepper, 4-wire stepper goes to the stepper pins, the other pins used are step and direction. We also have the M1 and M2 pins jumped to the second GND pin on the board to get 1.2 stepping.
Here are the motors:
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.co ... 3d-printer
But, we're still frying boards left and right. Some boards that we've had working perfectly for a while will suddenly just go up in flames. When they are working, the steppers run nice and smooth, boards are a little hot, but nothing crazy. We are not using heat sinks, but the flamming boards don't exhibit a thermal shutdown mode beforehand, either. I'm thinking that it may just be with our power supply. We're using a big one, since we're trying to drive 20 BEDs. We have a 24v/25A power supply. But, we're starting with the current trip pot all the way down and just slightly adjusting it up until the stepper moves happily. Lots of the boards are flaming up even without any motors connected or drawing any current.
Is the power supply just too beefy? I'm of the understanding that even if the power supply could be capable of 1000 amps, it will only dish out what the motor requires. Also, I beleive that you can run steppers safely at 24V, as long as the current limit is set low on the pot. We're not getting any hot motors. So, I'm unsure if the power supply is the issue.
Anyone have any ideas what could be up? Anyone ever have the same issue? Thanks,
--> Karl
Hey, I'm on a project right now that uses a bunch of BED to power Nema 17 stepper motors. We've been having trouble with these board bursting into flame. At first, we found that that current pots were shipped pegged to full on. On power up, they would fry with an exciting orange flame. We were able to solve that by turning the pots all the way counter clockwise and adjusting them from there. It's still kinda wierd, because we running within the spec'd voltage limits and boards will burst into flame even without any motor attached. We're running the power supply to the +M and GND pins for the stepper, 4-wire stepper goes to the stepper pins, the other pins used are step and direction. We also have the M1 and M2 pins jumped to the second GND pin on the board to get 1.2 stepping.
Here are the motors:
http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.co ... 3d-printer
But, we're still frying boards left and right. Some boards that we've had working perfectly for a while will suddenly just go up in flames. When they are working, the steppers run nice and smooth, boards are a little hot, but nothing crazy. We are not using heat sinks, but the flamming boards don't exhibit a thermal shutdown mode beforehand, either. I'm thinking that it may just be with our power supply. We're using a big one, since we're trying to drive 20 BEDs. We have a 24v/25A power supply. But, we're starting with the current trip pot all the way down and just slightly adjusting it up until the stepper moves happily. Lots of the boards are flaming up even without any motors connected or drawing any current.
Is the power supply just too beefy? I'm of the understanding that even if the power supply could be capable of 1000 amps, it will only dish out what the motor requires. Also, I beleive that you can run steppers safely at 24V, as long as the current limit is set low on the pot. We're not getting any hot motors. So, I'm unsure if the power supply is the issue.
Anyone have any ideas what could be up? Anyone ever have the same issue? Thanks,
--> Karl