Help with Stepper Motor Noise and Calibration Issues on My Custom MPCNC Build

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Hi everyone,

I’m working on a custom MPCNC build and running into two main issues:

  1. The stepper motors make a high-pitched noise when idle—almost like they’re still being powered, even though they’re not moving.
  2. My X and Y axis calibration seems slightly off. I’ve double-checked the belt tension and pulley sizes, but my cuts are still not dimensionally accurate.

I’m using the standard Marlin firmware with TMC2209 drivers on a SKR 1.3 board. Any ideas on what could be causing this? Should I be tweaking the Vref or steps/mm?

Appreciate any help or suggestions!

Thanks in advance.

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They are still being powered. That is what holds the motor still while its not moving. What do you have your motor current set at? if its too high it can make them louder and also make the steppers warmer.

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you can turn off the motors while it isn’t doing anything with a gcode command like M84 or from the marlin menu. You can put that at the end of your cut files so it will be quiet. Be aware that powering down the motors will stop the noise and the cnc will not hold its position either. It will also allow you to move things around by hand, but just don’t move it too fast. To turn motors back on, tell it to home or just jog the system in each direction x,y,z and then they will be on again, or run a gcode file.

I don’t know why they whine. My printer does the same thing sometimes, so disabling the motors stops the noise.

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What are we talking 10mm, or 0.0010mm? What material is the test cut in, what exact endmill, what cut parameters.

I highly suggest starting with a pen and paper and move up from there in material hardness.

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