Phidgets Forums

Hi.
I am wondering: is there a way to detect anomalies while operating a stepper motor? Measuring the current drawn by the stepper can be a way to detect if something is going wrong? I am thinking about a failing limit switch when the stepper seeks zero position at the beginning of operations.

One of the most reliable ways to looks for issues on the stepper motor (stalls, etc) is to use an encoder on the motor, since the encoder will tell you exactly what the motor shaft is doing.

Current monitoring could be a very difficult way of interpreting stepper motor behaviour.