Motor Temps

Quick question, when I stop a project and walk away to continue the next day. Does leaving the power on, on the machine keep the motors engaged? And will it affect the motor Temps?

Leaving the power on and attached to the computer will keep them engaged. I have never tried it but i don’t think the steppers will get any warmer then if you were running it. I am sure someone else will chime in on that.

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The stock Xcarve come configured to let idle steppers get 30 or 40% of current limit after an idle time defined by GRBL parameter $1 which usually is =10 (10ms)
This is to reduce wasted energy / keeping the steppers cold.

If $1=255 the steppers will always be seen as “ON” and no idle state is triggered and they recieve full power all the time.

However, a stepper will not heat up much more sitting still compared to when working. The steppers are also very temperature tolerant and can withstand continous temps up to about 176degF (this is an
immideate “ouch-territory” if placing your hand on it.)

Warm is fine, pretty warm is also safe, ouch = after 3s of palm on case is also fine. Immideate “ouch” = approaching limit.

Bottom line - your machine should be quite fine being left on for any amount of time. Change $1 to =255 and let the machine sit for an hr, check temps for your comfort :slight_smile:

I always recommend that $1=255 which keep steppers are full power as this greatly reduce the risk of bumping the machine out of sync when running/handling like during tool changes etc.

What you need to make sure of thou, when returning to the machine after a long pause is to verify that the USB connection have been uninterrupted. You can do that by taking note of the machine coordinates when pausing it and compare when returning to it. Machine coords will go to 0 if interrupted.

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