[Drools]

Is it common for stepper motors to emit a high pitch whine when sitting idle?
Example: I fire up the computer then turn on the control box which houses my drivers and power supply. I then fire up Mach3 and all is good however when I press the reset button in Mach3 that is when the noise starts?
The motors seem to run fine but the noise is quite annoying when idling. I tend to let Mach3 sit awaiting a reset most of the time.
I'm using STMD drivers and a regulated 43VDC PS with Tormach 280oz 4 wire motors.
Comments are appreciated and welcome.

[pminmo]

It's common for chopper drivers. When not actively using you motion cotrol you are better off having the motors disabled anyway for safety purposes, motor longevity, energy consumption and driver heat. When running you can't hear the noise over the cutting.

[Drools]

Thank you very much for the reply and the advise. I will leave my controller box off until I'm ready to route.

[pminmo]

You don't have to leave it unpowered, just disabled ala MACH3 reset

[diamantmatch]

Is it common for stepper motors to emit a high pitch whine when sitting idle?
Example: I fire up the computer then turn on the control box which houses my drivers and power supply. I then fire up Mach3 and all is good however when I press the reset button in Mach3 that is when the noise starts?
The motors seem to run fine but the noise is quite annoying when idling. I tend to let Mach3 sit awaiting a reset most of the time.
I'm using STMD drivers and a regulated 43VDC PS with Tormach 280oz 4 wire motors.
Comments are appreciated and welcome.

bump

getting the same high pitch tone here.

i think its mach3 enabeling the enable pin and therefore the controller sends current through one of the coils holding the motor steady.
its making a whining noise because its never compleatly still and therefore rocking back and forth on a verry tiny scale verry fast.

all this is just a quick theory of someone who just started here


greets diamantmatch

[neilw20]

Nothing to do with Mach3.
It is the current mode operation of the driver.

Live with the noise, or reduce the supply voltage, and lose some top end speed.
This occurs when the chopping does cycle skipping, because the minimum pulse width won't go any lower.
Don't confuse that minimum pulse width with Mach3.
It is a function of the driver, the stepper motor inductance, current setting and supply voltage.

If the motor,driver and power supply can take it, increasing the current setting may quieten it.

Turning off current reduction when stopped might also stop it.

Hitting the reset on Mach3 won't help. You will just lose your reference if microstepping is used.

[RomanLini]

If you increase the PSU voltage (with most drivers) it will shift the frequency of the noise higher in the audio spectrum and can make it ultrasonic or at least part of the noise in the ultrasonics to make it quieter.

I recently reduced my PSU voltage to improve performance and the motor noise got more audible and more annoying.

Some stepper drivers have a special control pin to synchronise the chopping of the 2 phases to reduce audible noise when the motor is stationary, although most driver manufacturers don't seem to bother making the pin available to the user.

[ttevanwang]

put a c clamp on the stepper would do the trick, simple and effective!