Trouble Running Stepper at High Speeds

[Michael Gentry]

Hello,

I am currently using a Nema 34 Stepper Motor with an Arduino Mega 2560 and a CL86T-V41 Stepper driver.  For this project, the goal is to get the stepper to reach 300 RPM, which with 200 steps per revolution should be 100 steps per second. The stepper responds well up to around 200 RPM, but it seems to stall out once I go above that threshold. After doing some research, I have been led to believe this is because I am not using a strong enough power supply, but I was wondering if you had any other insight as to why this may be occuring.

Thank you,

Michael Gentry

[Bob Remels]

Michael - I'm not experienced with this driver, but you may want to check to see that the Current Gain is tuned properly, if you have not done so already. 

Bob

[Jim Larson]

Hello Michael -

First, I do not have one of these controllers to experiment with, so I can't verify what I'm suggesting. This is based on experience with many other steppers and drivers.

There is a typo in your posting. Your target speed is 1000 steps per second, not 100.

Bob's suggestion to check (and perhaps increase) the current gain is a good one.

You haven't posted the code you are using to test your motor, but if you are just trying to make it go a constant speed (like with runSpeed()), then it may be that you need to accelerate it (using run()). If you are already using run() to accelerate, then try decreasing the value of setAcceleration() so you accelerate more slowly.

Another thing to check is what other functions, if any, are being called in the loop(). it's possible to slow the loop() and limit the maximum speed that can be attained. Remember that run() or runSpeed() will only step at most one step on each call.

HTH. Post your control code if you need more assistance.

             -jim