X stepper motor heats up

Hello everyone. It’s my first post here even though I own an X-Carve for 3 years.
I’ve been having a little bit of difficulty recently with my X movement. The chip driver inside the gshield gets hot and the stepper motor also, even if nothing moves. The Y and Z chip/motor are not hot at all. This causes me problems and the most annoying thing is that I can easily move the gantry with my little pinky even if the power is on. Needless to say that cutting or carving in hard materials ends up a mess. I tried increasing the amps output with the X trip pot, with no effect. I’ve even lowered down the Y axis power to get a little bit more on the X, but nothing changes. Everything moves perfectly when it’s moving without too much force.
To try to solve this, I bought 3 motor drivers based on the TB6600. So here’s my question: Do you think it’s the gshield motor driver which is the culprit or do I have an issue with my X stepper motor?

Thank you
Alain

@AlainVaillancourt

Upgrading from the gshield to something like TB6600 will be a HUGE performance and reliability upgrade. I seriously advice you to do that, however choose to use 4x individual drivers and not three so both Y-motors get their own driver.
The schematic is really simple but look confusing at first - but it really isn’t.

As far as bumping the machine out of position, check GRBL parameter $1 and set it so 255 if it is anything less.

Regarding motor heat, warm/hot is not a problem. 60degC isn’t a problem. Most steppers can take 80degC before you need to pay attention. Which motor do you have today?

You won’t be able to balance power that way.
How warm/hot do the X-motor get?
What is the Vref on the X-motor driver? (potmenter)

Thank you.
The 4th driver is a real good advice I’ll do that for sure.
my $10 settings is 0x03 this according to the grbl info invert the X and Y step pulse signal.
I didn’t measure the heat of the motor, but it’s certain it’s not close to 60°C
The centre of the pot is at 2V

Thanks again
Alain

Hi Allain/Woodpecker :slight_smile:

Haldor meant the $1 value should be equal to 255.

I recently built TB6600 based controller and I’m extremely happy with it. I did have some problems with the drivers I first got from eBay and ended up replacing them with these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016ZJS1FA/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Let me know if you have problems finding the instructions and schematics.

Best of luck.

@AlainVaillancourt

This is a problem. Read this thread.

The gShield does not have enough cooling to run anywhere near the theoretical limits.

Indeed I did, thanks for the correction.
I have edited my post to correct the error :slight_smile:

Then there is no real reason to worry :slight_smile:
I once ran a Nema17 so hard water would boil on the motor casing, the motor lived through it though.

But seriously, most stepper data sheets I’ve seen state 80degC as max continuous case temperature, higher and you run the risk of demagnetisation of the motor magnets.

Yes $1 is at 255
And thank you all for your answers, I’m more confident about changing the motor driver and not the motor itself. I’ll definitively will make a video making those modifications. I’m also waiting for a laser which I’ll find a way to switch between the spindle and the laser, it’s why I’ll also change my grbl from version 0.9 to 1.1 .

If you have spare time or just want to waste some, here’s the link to my X-Carve setup.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmmQq8RIz8k) I have no clue why but it’s my most seen video of my channel. BTW the next video after my X-Carve shelf is my favourite of all, this one worth watching.
Thanks again
Alain