Disappointing experience with Trinamic TMCM1160 Stepper controller - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ROT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2023, 01:17:38 pm
content: Hi Everyone!I just want to rant a little bit and possibly find out if I am this incompetent or someone else had similar experiences with Trinamic products.I have a really simple test setup, a small shaft have to be rotated at a steady rpm (around 60 RPM) to test a rotary encoder.For this we bought a QSH-6018-86-28-310 Stepper motor and a TMCM1160 controller.The first TMCM1160 died a after a few days without any meaningful load or usage, we did not know why, the board was still communicating with the PC software but it did not drive the motor or respond properly to some messages.Also 2 IC's were overheating pretty seriously.I contacted the support but they were not much of a help, we confirmed the wiring and the setup is okay but basically that's it.Anyways, since we did not really manage to use the controller I assumed it had a defect and requested a new board.The new controller arrived super quickly, I also handled it super carefully,even though this should be quality and robust stuff, because we really did need this for measurements.I even managed to carry out some measurements but now the new board is cooked too.I was configuring the built in StallGuard2 functionality which explicitly asks you to break to motor manually,(I did this to prevent overloading and also for safety reasons, as I mentioned our usage was very light so for safety reasons the motor should stop on any higher than normal load), so I braked the motor by hand, the motor did vibrate and I hear something pop on the board.Now the board is dead, the same 2 IC-s are overheating again and now the board is not communicating at all, not even the power LED lights up.I am sad, am I this incompetent? I played around with a BLDC controller from aliexpress at home, no issues, I also built a BLDC controller according to GreatScott's video, no issues. And now I order a 250 EUR controller because this is for a measurement at work and I can't put 2 hours of work in it without killing it.Please help.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2023, 09:46:03 pm
content: What is your input voltage? Is it an isolated supply?Were you ever driving the motor while the controller was not powered?I would just get a closed loop stepper or servo that is already a built unit, then you know it will be somewhat reliable. Many options out there for around this price.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 01:49:15 am
content: That is not a cheap driver board... but one thing to check is to make sure your connections between the motor and driver are perfectly secure --- they tend to die easily from the induced back-EMF if a connection goes open while in operation.Also, what are the ICs that overheat?

author: mawyatt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 02:51:56 am
content: Back in 2014 and a few years forward we developed some precision linear rails (THK) driven with 400 step 4 wire motors (recall NEMA 16) for sub-micron positioning, these were driven by various Trinamic controllers like 5160 and so on. Some required external FETs for higher current, and some didn't.Trinamic CS was almost useless for us also when they found out we weren't buying 10,000 chips!!Anyway, since you've lost 2 drivers, make absolutely sure things are wired correctly. Check the motor carefully, maybe verify with the polarity with LED trick. Also may sure you have enough local (near chip) decoupling on the supply, assume you are using single supply in "H" bridge configuration, so usually a large quality electrolytic is sufficient. This capacitor is where the inductive back emf energy is returned to the supply rail, so large value and good ESR are required.Wish we could remember more, but we haven't done anything with these drivers/controllers in a number of years.BTW, we were used the Stealth modes (lower motor acoustic noise) and micro stepping, and they did work quite well once you've figured out all the control details without CS help!!Something very beneficial is a current probe for your DSO, this allows you to see the sine and cosine current waveforms as the motor rotates. Looking at the motor terminals with scope voltage probes is difficult due to the voltage commutation (differential probes may help), so a current probe is worthwhile for troubleshooting.Good luck, sorry we can't remember much more, if something more is recalled we'll note here.Best,

author: ROT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 06:43:18 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on October 18, 2023, 09:46:03 pmThe supply was 36 Volts, on paper the controller could handle way more.The supply was isolated.I am also no expert, but of course I did not do anything dodgy like connecting disconnecting stuff under operation, or aggressively rotating stuff by hand.The standalone closed loop setup sounds great, that was actually my original plan, but this is a small test job at a multinational company so the places/retailers we can order from is somewhat limited.Maybe something you can recommend from Farnell?(I am actually quite satisfied with Farnell, they were quick to respond and very helpful although of course their technical knowledge is limited on this)

author: ROT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 06:48:08 am
content: Quote from: amyk on October 19, 2023, 01:49:15 amThe wiring should be secure, also it's a small mechanical test rig so the whole assembly is not too prone to vibration or stuff like that, but this is something I will pay attention to!About the overheating, I attached some pictures, it's IC200 and D205, not sure what this little circuitry is responsible for, I also sent these to the Trinamic support but got no feedback on this.

author: ROT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 07:14:17 am
content: Thank you mawyatt for the insights! I am pretty sure the Trinamic team and ICs are quite good, I saw them mentioned and used other places on the interweb, that's also the main reason I picked a controller from them, I thought it's going to be a plug and play operationI really did not expect this setup to be this sensitive, or I must be doing something horribly wrong, but I killed 2 controllers in a row without doing anything out of the ordinary, maybe I should have added some extra components for protection, but what did I pay a premium for then?The measurement tips sounds great, but I have no working controller for now and I doubt I will order one more TMCM 1160's.I want to know what did I do wrong! But I also have a project I have to progress with so I will neglect the Trinamic solution for a while.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2023, 09:12:04 pm
content: IC200 could be LDO or buck regulator. Possibly connected directly to the input voltage? No sign of a TVS or fuses that I see, as you say paying a premium should get you that.And yes, 36V should be well within the 48V rating of the board.I don't know about Farnell, they don't seem to have many options. Usually would source fromhttps://www.omc-stepperonline.com/or similar.

author: H.O
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2023, 03:35:09 pm
content: The manual has some hints about powersupply design. They specifically recommends adding external bulk capacitance across the supply input since there's only 20uF capacitance on the board. Unless you do have that capacitor in place my guess is that this is the issue.If you're using two powersupplies (one for the powerstage and one for the logic) they also say that the logic supply voltage needs to be HIGHER than the powerstage voltage.Finally, for what you're doing (spinning an encoder) that motor seems WAY overkill (and expensive). Not that the TMCM-1160 shouldn't be able to handle it but still.

author: ROT
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2023, 08:45:27 am
content: Quote from: H.O on October 23, 2023, 03:35:09 pmThat's true, although it mentions the long cables too, which was not the case, every parts is located close to each other in our setup. I also thought that worst case I will get some stability issues, but my controllers outright died.The capacitors might have been able to soak up the voltage spike but if the circuit is this sensitive these MUST be installed on the board and they should not ask the customer to install it afterwards...The way we supply the board is OK, the support also double checked that. I also agree the motor is a bit of an overkill but we wanted to future proof our test setup for tests where higher torque might be needed. I am saying "encoder", but actually the device under test is a bit bulkier than the small encoder you might have in mind.