The HEBI Community Forum

Hi everyone!

I am a newbie in this forum, so I have a question about torque overload on X8-16 actuators.

We built a robot arm using X series actuators, but since there is a lot of uncertainty about the type of object to be carried within the deployment environment, Is there a method to protect the actuators from overload in case of carrying very heavy objects?

For example, Some actuators have internal safety measures such as shutting down automatically when detecting overload on each actuator. Does the X series actuators have such functionality?

Thanks in advance,

Hello! The actuators were designed to be safe to use for students and in research contexts.

We have added a heat limiter that limits the maximum output power to levels that each actuator can safely dissipate. ​Commanding something outside the specs will result in actuators not being able to meet the target, but they will never shut down or overheat to a point that causes internal damage. Thermal limiting changes the LED color to red.

You can also confirm the model working by looking at the red line (winding temp) of the Temperature in Scope, or by accessing the respective state fields in the feedback.

Thank you so much for your reply.

I followed your instructions to check the winding temp in scope and as feedback in the SDK,I noticed the winding temp raising significantly as more load is applied to the actuator.

So practically speaking, when we overload the X series actuator, it will stop responding when the winding temperature threshold is reached? at that point the LED will also turn red, correct?

Thank you very much,

No. It will enter something like a degraded performance mode, but it will always respond and continue working.

When the actuator is cold, you can get up to the rated "peak torque". When it is hot and loaded continuously, you will eventually be limited to the rated "continuous torque". This is very useful for transient motions where you pick up something and move it to a more favorable part of the workspace.

I'd encourage you to just try it out and see what happens. It's perfectly safe.