motors getting hot?

Is it normal for my motors to be really hot? After printing for an hour, my motors are so hot I can only touch it for 1 second before I burn myself. What is a normal operating temperature? I have a prusa i3 btw.

Hot yes, but probably not that hot. Are you printing much faster than defaults? I suspect you may need to tune you stepper drives.

i use fans on my X axis motor, and Y Axis as they are constantly moving. If your Z gets hot the current needs to be adjusted
Mine get quite warm without fans, I used my printer for like a year without cooling, Now i have fans for my motors, Hotend and prints if using pla.

some people dont like this but i do it just to get the most performance, It uses slightly more power, and creates more noise, You can fix this with rubber feat and an enclosed cabinet for all sounds.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2014 06:22AM by nechaus.

Another thing, Make sure all axis movements have smooth movement..



Once i used adhesive spray and some managed to get on my smooth rods on the x axis, It became extremely hard for the motor to move it, only after a few prints, the motor got very hot and started to skip when i noticed it. So i used acetone and cleaned and re-lubricated, smooth as now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2014 06:27AM by nechaus.

The extruder nozzle is the hottest. The z motors are warm, but not as nearly as hot. The x axis motor is warm probably because I put a heatsink on it. I tried putting a heatsink on the extruder motor but it didnt help much. How should I properly adjust the current? I've found that if it is too high or too low than I get shifting in my prints that take longer than 2 hours.

Yes, stepper motors can get quite hot when running. Stepper motors get even hotter when sitting still and under power. That's one reason to use the "Motors Off" button in Pronterface. Also, always disable them at the end of your Gcode with "M84".

You can turn down the power going to them until they start skipping steps, then turn it up a bit (with the stepper motor trim pot on the stepper motor driver for that axis). This insures that you are delivering the minimum current needed to drive each axis, but run the motors the coolest.

They Z axis motors won't even be warm if you use Marlin firmware, because Marlin turns them off between Z increments. If you think about it, your Z motors are very rarely even used, only for a fraction of a second to adjust the Z for layer changes. The inertia in most X axis (with leadscrews) is more than enough to stop any Z direction at all.

You need to adjust Vref on your stepper controllers. What printer controller and stepper controller are you using? The safe way to do this is to turn off the 12V supply if possible and run the controller from the USB connection. Then measure the Vref on the test point on each stepper controller and adjust the trimpot to the voltage corresponding to no more than the maximum rating of your stepper motor.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2014 11:47AM by brnrd.

I have a prusa i3, nema17 steppers, and ramps 1.4. I tried changing it once but after 1 hour of printing, they always skipped. I've finally gotten it to a point where I've printed for 6 hours straight which is my longest print successfully. They might be hot, but atleast they are working now.

hello
please i want to ask u what did u do finally to get your motor warm not so hot
because i have the same problem

Quote
3dPriMo
hello
please i want to ask u what did u do finally to get your motor warm not so hot
because i have the same problem

They waited for a bit more than 3 years.

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"A comical prototype doesn't mean a dumb idea is possible" (Thunderf00t)

Too hot to touch is good rule of thumb but 55 deg C might be uncomfortable to touch for more than a few seconds but isn't too hot for a stepper motor. 80 deg C probably is over the long term. However motors may be fixed by PLA parts which won't take this heat.

Lower motor current to the lowest level you can, but enough that the motor does not skip when commanded to move as fast as you want it to.

Some drivers run motors hotter than others.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions