Does M906 set RMS or peak current?

[wilriker]

@dc42 I only now realized that my X motor nearly does not give off any standstill noise. It were my Z motors I was hearing all the time because I did not disable them while testing. I will need to retest and come back with new results.

[wilriker]

So, this was a rather quick one because currently I have some mechanical squeaking on my Z axis, so I cannot really test movement noises.

TOFF
For standstill noise setting TOFF=3 makes a noticable difference towards being more silent and a less annoying frequency. All other values are either equal to a value of 4 or are definitely worse.

TBL
TBL=2 is already the best value.

rndtf
Enabling rndtf this time makes it noticeably worse.

Conclusion

Reducing TOFF to a value of 3 will definitely go into my configuration for Z axis.

[wilriker]

I now also tested all other axes.

Best values for TOFF per axis:

• X: 6 (makes it inaudible in standstill)
• Y: 3 (large improvement)
• Z: 3 (large improvement)
• E0: 4 (current default) even though 9 also gives a quite good result

So it might be interesting to provide a dedicated parameter for TOFF to either M569 or M906 (or maybe M917?) so everyone could work out the perfect values for themselves without having to fiddle around with bitmasks.

---

I will have to retest values fo HSTRT/HEND for all axes again tomorrow.

[wilriker]

I just precalculated all (valid) combinations of HSTRT+HEND for all axes and uploaded 400 macros to the Duet via a remote connection - the UI was clearly never meant to do that.

[wilriker]

Another step done:

HSTRT, HEND and Standstill Noise

I played around with HSTRT and HEND. Main regard here as well was standstill noise.

Generally I can confirm my findings above that MSTRT=5, MEND=0 gives best or at least equal noise level except for extruder. For the extruder MSTRT=4, MEND=4 was the best value I could find.

General rules found while testing:

• MSTRT >= MEND gives least noise
• MEND >=8 is usually very noisy and annoying

HSTRT, HEND and Movement Noise

I only tested X and Z so far regarding movement noise and vibration and also my initial findings for Z stand that MSTRT=5, MEND=0 is equal to very slightly less noisy compared to current default of 3 and 3.

For X though I could not find a value that gives less noise on very slow movements than 3 and 3.

Basically these settings mainly influence noise level of very slow movements. I usually test them with G1 ... F1 - which is rather unusual for printing except maybe really with Z when Mesh Bed Compensation is active.

[dc42]

Thanks for your excellent work! I've added a TOFF parameter for M569 to the work list for firmware 2.01.

[wilriker]

@dc42 You're welcome! Was fun to experiment with that a little bit.

Having a separate parameter will definitely make the config.g file (or more precisely the M569 commands) a lot more understandable without a comment.

[wilriker]

For Reference

@dc42 said in Motor Whine/Loud Movement:

Could you provide chopper configuration values for various TOFF values, so that users who only need to change TOFF can try them?

Of course:

• TOFF=0 -> M569 C65968 (this means motors are off!)
• TOFF=1 -> M569 C65969
• TOFF=2 -> M569 C65970
• TOFF=3 -> M569 C65971
• TOFF=4 -> M569 C65972
• TOFF=5 -> M569 C65973
• TOFF=6 -> M569 C65974
• TOFF=7 -> M569 C65975
• TOFF=8 -> M569 C65976
• TOFF=9 -> M569 C65977
• TOFF=10 -> M569 C65978
• TOFF=11 -> M569 C65979
• TOFF=12 -> M569 C65980
• TOFF=13 -> M569 C65981
• TOFF=14 -> M569 C65982
• TOFF=15 -> M569 C65983

You'll have to add at least the Pnnn parameter to specify the motor.

---

I have written a small tool to create the values for the Cnnn parameter that takes into account all possible sub-values:
The source code as well as three precompiled binaries for Windows/Linux/Mac AMD64 have been uploaded to https://github.com/wilriker/chopconf-generator (binaries can be found at https://github.com/wilriker/chopconf-generator/releases).

There is also some very short usage description.

---

There is now a page at the wiki Reducing Stand-Still Noise.

[garis]

@wilriker Thanks for this - another great advantage of having a Duet. I wrote a macro for each motor with 10 seconds at each setting and voila! 2 quiet motors. But I have 4 on a core XY

I am using motors recycled from a scrapped old CTC printer. They are way out of David's recommended specs - they are 6 ohms and 9 mH. They now work quietly on X and Y with no apparent problems so even poor spec motors can work, I think. But the extruder motor went berserk (speed and direction both erratic) driving a Zesty Nimble so I quickly purchased a good 20mm pancake.

My issue is with the Z motor that as an integrated lead screw which I am hesitating on replacing. Because the 250mm leadscrew has different resonant frequencies none of the TOFF settings silenced it. Perhaps it is not possible? A fallback is to add some damping material around the Z screw near the T nut but that might be inelegant. Any suggestions?

[wilriker]

@garis My motors are also not optimal with 4.4 Ohm and 10mH and with my extruder motor I was not able to find a better setting than the default. That said there is no guarantee that you can find a setting that will be silent.

I do have silicone dampers on my Z steppers (which I will replace with these standard Nema 17 dampers if I not keep forgetting to order them) and also change my nut to one made from POM/Delrin which also reduced the noise or at least shifted it to a nicer frequency. You could try that.

[Martin1454]

So, I have been playing around a bit with it - But when I change TOFF from 72 to 69, the sound is a little bit better, but my stall detection/ sensorless homing stops working - @dc42 do you know why this happening?

[dc42]

@martin1454 said in Does M906 set RMS or peak current?:

So, I have been playing around a bit with it - But when I change TOFF from 72 to 69, the sound is a little bit better, but my stall detection/ sensorless homing stops working - @dc42 do you know why this happening?

I don't. Trinamic has not made the full details of load sensing public, all we know is that it measures motor back emf. I think the back emf can only be measured during the off-time; so maybe it needs a minimum off-time to work.

Have you checked whether you can get stall detection working again by changing the M915 setting?

[wilriker]

@martin1454 I can only say so much that stallGuard is very sensitive to any kind of changes. This means if you change TOFF you probably have to retune stallGuard. It might continue to work without adaption but there is no guarantee it will.

[dc42]

Please note, the TMC2660 datasheet says that the lowest TOFF setting available must not be used with the lowest TBL setting.

I have just implemented a TOFF parameter in M569. I expect to release beta firmware later today or tomorrow.

[wilriker]

@dc42 said in Does M906 set RMS or peak current?:

Please note, the TMC2660 datasheet says that the lowest TOFF setting available must not be used with the lowest TBL setting.

All of the values posted above have a TBL setting of 36 which is RRF default and the second highest value for this parameter at the same time.

I will add this restriction to the generator tool though.
EDIT: Done and added a new release.

I have just implemented a TOFF parameter in M569. I expect to release beta firmware later today or tomorrow.

Looking forward to this!