X27.168 Stepper Motor Issue

For other supported Arduino products from Adafruit: Shields, accessories, etc.

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
skamal
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed May 04, 2022 3:44 pm

X27.168 Stepper Motor Issue

Post by skamal »

Hello, I have purchased multiple X27 168 stepper motors and am using them each with a TB6612 driver that is controlled by an Arduino Mega. I have had nothing but constant problems with this set up. This is THE recommended way to drive the motor according to the product page directly. I have tried many many different things to mitigate the issues on the motor. Currently I have an issue where the setup works great for a while but occasionally, my motors stop moving and I measure less than a volt on the Vmotor pins. For reference, I have a 5V 30W supply that is dedicated to just providing power to the motor because of how much noise they produce (when I had all my devices powered from the same 5V supply literally nothing worked properly until I separated them). I have no fix for this but this is not why I posted this topic. If you have any guidance I would appreciate it as I'm not sure if I have a motor issue or a driver issue.

The product page for motor X27.168 has incorrect information: it states there are 600 steps but this is not true. See this link for a more formal datasheet: https://4tronix.co.uk/zeropoint/x27_spec.pdf

If you check the link it states that it moves 1/3rd of a step per degree and every example online, aside from the Adafruit page's has the steps set to (315*3) because 315 degrees of motion times 3 steps per degree gets you the real total number of steps. I've found the stepper behaves much better with this definition.

Is there any explanation for this? Does anyone know for sure the exact number of steps it has? I have tried contacting the manufacturer (Juken Swiss) but have not heard back.

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88037
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: X27.168 Stepper Motor Issue

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

These motors are typically a very easy load for the TB6612. With a phase resistance of 260 Ohms, they only draw about 20mA/phase (40mA total - worst-case). Noise should also be minimal at those current levels. If you are seeing only 1v at the VMotor pins, I would suspect either a power supply problem, or a marginal connection. If you post some photos showing all of your soldering and connections, we can take a look.

Not sure where the original step count in the product description came from. It is possible that our supply has changed. I will inform our products group and have them update the data as needed.

User avatar
adafruit2
 
Posts: 22111
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:36 pm

Re: X27.168 Stepper Motor Issue

Post by adafruit2 »

we're going to try to get the datasheet for this or at least verify what you mentioned - it's been many many years since we put this item in stock so we dont recall how we came up with the step numbers :D

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Other Arduino products from Adafruit”