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COOLING STEPPERS - Print speed

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Simonpackman1, Oct 4, 2015.

  1. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    I know steppers are meant to get pretty hot but I was wondering what the effects of cooling all of my steppers would be. I would like to increase my printer speed and I feel confident I could do so with cooling. Another thing is how would I mount 40mm fans to my steppers? Also changing marlin to leave z steppers on.

    - How to mount fans to steppers
    - Effects of fan cooling on steppers
    - Leaving z steppers on in the marlin code to reduce jerking when turning on to move.
     
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Most anyone of these will work. Some mount to the back of the stepper, some snap around the outside.
    http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:1?q=stepper+fan+mount&sa=

    But unless your steppers are overheating, speed won't appreciably raise their temperature. Besides there are many more limiting factors for speed other than stepper temps.
     
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  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can also buy heat sinks to mount to the steppers (search amazon).
    But I second the motion that cooling them is not going to be a huge benefit to increasing speed.
     
  4. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    I hear going to a bowden helps due to reducing weight on the carriage. T or F?
    Also would doubling my speed possibly overheat my steppers?
     
  5. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    True and likely no.
     
    #5 WheresWaldo, Oct 5, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2015
  6. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Temperature of the motors has more to do with how much current is being supplied and less on how fast it goes. You can go a bit faster with more current, but not significantly.

    Bowden does allow for faster print speeds but also induces more unwanted effects. You can go plenty fast on direct feed so I'd advise against bowden
     
  7. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    would allowing the z steppers to be on continuously cause them to overheat and would it improve printing accuracy to do so?
     
  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    If a stepper controller is using micro-steps and the stepper motor is turned off, upon turning back on, the stepper will be at the closest full step. So leaving them on has the advantage of greater accuracy. This is one reason it is stupid to turn off any axis in Marlin, while printing, and I don't know why Robo did this with the Z axis in their version of Configuration.h. Leaving them on will have a negligible effect on stepper temperature. I have my modded Firmware set to leave all steppers on and even in multi-hour prints the steppers are barely warm to the touch.

    This is Robo's default setting:
    Code:
    #define DISABLE_Z true    //robo
    This is what it should be:
    Code:
    #define DISABLE_Z false
     
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  9. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    cool thanks!
     
  10. Simonpackman1

    Simonpackman1 Member

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    well i added a couple of cheap 40mm 10cfm fans and intake and outtake on the sides of the bottom of the enclosure as a precautionary step to pumpimg up my steppers and having them all stay on
     
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can buy heatsinks for the steppers as well if you are seriously concerned about it. I'd say just test it and see.
    Good luck.
     
  12. janot928

    janot928 Active Member

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    Side not: I found out that calibrating the stepper driver controll board will give you less noise from the stepper and they will run cooler to
     
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