How to turn off stepper when not in use to avoid it from heating up?

#1

Hello,

Would anyone out there be able to advise whether it is possible to turn off a stepper port totally? (or set all 4 pins of a stepper motor to 0/GND)

This is to save power and to avoid it from overheating when we do not require the holding torque.

# This sets the stepper to stop, it starts to heat up over time.
# Is there a better way to turn the stepper off TOTALLY?

dType.SetEMotor(api, 0, 0, 0, isQueued=1)

At the moment, even after we SetEMotor to DISABLED, and Speed to 0, the motor still heats up. There is current flowing through the pins.

How could we turn off the power flowing to the stepper pins totally, or set all those pins to 0?

Thanks!

#2

Hi ,
The stepper always works until you turn off the dobot arm .
The heat would make little difference to stepper while it is standby .
It can not lock the dobot arm when the stepper does not work . And the position information would be lost .

#3

Thanks @Echo . My experience is that the external stepper motor heats up significantly.
(The question was related to the external steppers plugged into Stepper 1 / Stepper 2 extension ports, not the inbuilt steppers that move the arm)


Do you happen to know whether there is a particular rating of external stepper motors recommended for use with the Dobot?

Had some external steppers rated around 1A to 1.5A and those tended to heat up rather quickly - it was very warm within an hour of switching on the Dobot Magician.

Recently tested a higher end stepper rated at 1.7A and it seems to be generating less heat.
Just wondering whether there is a recommended stepper rating / or model.

Does anyone have experience running the Dobot for continuous operations?
Also wondering whether anyone has tried using the Dobot for daily operations of around 10-15 hours daily? Any suggestions what would be recommended for such use, apart from good ventilation?

#4

Hi ,
Unless you turn off the dobot , the external stepper would always works .
We once used dobot continuously for two month , and did not turn it off .

#5

@Echo WOW. Thank you for sharing! Were the steppers very hot after 2 months and did you all need to do any oiling/maintenance?