Steppers, how hot?

A trivia question about stepper motors in general..

When running at rated current, how hot should a stepper get?

I've got some small Nema 23 steppers, rated at 3A / 1.8V (From the sticker on them). They are salvaged from a Sekoshia printer.

I've used them in a few odds and sods, but never at their rated curent before. I'm in the process of building a 'junk box router' using them (other thread) and have found that running at 2.7A they get quite hot if not stepping for a while...

As per post #12 in that thread, the stepper is almost too hot to hold afer only 15 minutes running with 90% of the time spent idle, rather than stepping.

Cheers, Me.

steppers get pretty hot , i use pc fans to cool mine
i think a lot of the brands of steppers run to a max of 80 deg celcius
chances are you ll burn em anything above that

Hi,

I have some stepper motors which are rated around 80C; after running for a while I can touch them for only a few seconds. I took a temperature reading of the stepper and it was only 65C. So in my experience there not as hot as you think they are. If you are worried they are getting to hot fix a large heat sink to the motor case or add a fan.

Hope this helps,

John

Thanks for the comments folks, I wont worry so much about the hot steppers on this machine then...

I've switched to a higher voltage lower current setup anyway, gives a higher speed, although lots more heat in the resistors. :-).

We usually incorporate a power save feature into our stepper drives to make the motors run cool. We reduce the current to a percentage of the full current. If you don't need a high hold torque at standstill you can do this.

Regards,

Tim.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tim Tanner

We usually incorporate a power save feature into our stepper drives to make the motors run cool. We reduce the current to a percentage of the full current. If you don't need a high hold torque at standstill you can do this.

Regards,

Tim.

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Ya, I understand that's normal practice, I was just supprised at how hot these motors got at rated current.

Once I've got over the 'junk box' stage of the current project I'll either purchase a better controller, or re-invent the wheel and do something of my own. (My background is in electronics)

Cheers, Chris.