High pitched noise with some elctronics

[LT72884]

Hell

I am working on my new 3d printer and i came across an interesting situation. According to the manufacture, my stepper motors need to have a voltage of roughly 0.95 volts.

I checked mine and they were 0.81 volts, hence the not so smooth prints. Ok, so i increased the voltage to the recommended specs they told me to. Now the most fascinating thing has happened and i do not know if its just me or what.

But when i power the machine on, home it to its home position, once the motors have stopped moving, i can hear this low volume high pitched sound like a hissing sound. I sometimes hear this same sound with other electronic devices as well, such as my wallwort for my cell phone, or my gpu in my PC. the apartment is a new complex and the power is clean and grounded.

What is this sound and should i be worried. I mean, others can't hear it but i can. Its high pitched haha

thanks

 

[berkeman]

Probably just magnetostriction in the switching power supply magnetics. I wouldn't worry about it as long as the electronics are working correctly.

 

[rbelli1]

magnetostriction in the switching power supply magnetics.

And the ceramic capacitors are piezoelectric.

There is a whole chorus inside modern electronics.

BoB

 

[LT72884]

The electronics seem to be working fine. it prints and does what i need it to. I was thinking it was something to do with magnetics. thanks again

 

[davenn]

Probably just magnetostriction in the switching power supply magnetics. I wouldn't worry about it as long as the electronics are working correctly.

Yeah... squeals from switch mode PSU's are very common

 

[DaveE]

Yeah... squeals from switch mode PSU's are very common

The cheap ones anyway, LOL. Mine didn't ever squeal. On the other hand, you could never afford to put them in a consumer printer.

 

[sysprog]

Its not uncommon to hear a high-pitched sound from electronic devices -- e.g. from a camera's strobonar flash recharging for its next ready state -- these sounds are sometimes produced by a coil -- here's a link to an article on how to find and fix them in a computer: https://www.lifewire.com/fix-coil-whine-high-pitched-noise-4165184

 

[Guineafowl]

Modern drills are controlled by PWM, and if you press the trigger just enough, you’ll hear the whine of this before the motor starts turning and drowning out the noise. I put mine next to my tablet with a free audio spectrum analyser app, and was able to pick out the 5 kHz tone - the ‘carrier’ frequency of the motor control circuit.

 

[jim hardy]

you guys are lucky.

As a kid i could hear the 15.575khz horizontal oscillator in my neighbor's TV set. They were all vacuum tubes back then, early 50's, and my family didn't have one.

as you age those sounds will disappear or get replaced by Tinnitus.
Nowadays I hear a constant whistle about 11khz and same loudness as normal conversation.
If you work in industry or shoot anything bigger than a 22 , wear ear protection. The damage is cumulative.

old jim

 

[Averagesupernova]

you guys are lucky.

As a kid i could hear the 15.575khz horizontal oscillator in my neighbor's TV set. They were all vacuum tubes back then, early 50's, and my family didn't have one.

as you age those sounds will disappear or get replaced by Tinnitus.
Nowadays I hear a constant whistle about 11khz and same loudness as normal conversation.
If you work in industry or shoot anything bigger than a 22 , wear ear protection. The damage is cumulative.

old jim

I used to be able to hear the horizontal scanning frequency of TV receivers. Newer sets were more quiet but I could still hear them. Not so much anymore though. Age does that to a person. Hearing the horizontal scanning frequency from a neighbors set is pretty impressive. Either that or they had an exceptionally noisy TV.

 

[jim hardy]

Hearing the horizontal scanning frequency from a neighbors set is pretty impressive. Either that or they had an exceptionally noisy TV.

I think in early 50's they were much noisier. We kids could walk around the block and tell from the sidewalk whose TV was on. If it was a friend's house we'd knock on the door and ask to come in for "Adventure Time" or "Hopalong Cassidy". This was ca 1950-1951.

 

[Rive]

...so i increased the voltage to the recommended specs...

If you increase a voltage on a component, it'll usually take more current => more power. More power means higher load on the power supply unit(s) of the device. Higher load sometimes means noise.
Try to re-set that voltage to the original below-spec level and check the noise. If it disappears then check if the actual power/current load on the power supplies is within the specifications (with both voltage settings).
It might not mean that there is an actual problem since some power supplies and switch mode devices can produce noise in their normal state too, but better check it anyway.
Try to check temperatures too. High load might mean unhealthy high temperature.

 

[Mark Harder]

What is this sound and should i be worried. I mean, others can't hear it but i can. Its high pitched haha

Do you hear the noise when you use a battery-powered device? All the devices you mentioned are powered by line voltage, I think.

 

[Baluncore]

Baby mice also make a high pitched sound when they miss their mother. One hot summer night I only knew something unusual was happening because I heard the occasional momentary sound of an HV breakdown arc. That was a fire hazard, but from which switching supply? Was it the computer monitor, the TV or the fax machine in the middle that had recently had it's supply flyback diode replaced?

So at 1AM I stood there, sweating at over +40°C, frozen in position, listening and waiting for the direction of the sound of an arc. That was when I was confronted, face to face with the tiger snake. The arcing sound was made by it's scales as it rounded the end of paper files. It was confused, hunting for the hundreds of baby mice that it could clearly hear in the switching supplies.

All reptiles are protected in Australia, so it died of hunger, indirectly. If it had lived it would now be describing how one night during a heatwave, it had been confronted by a naked man hunting mice. Analyse that one Freud.

Next day I looked in the freezer to confirm it had all been a nightmare, but there, curled up like a deep frozen pretzel was the snake. It rattled when I moved it. Who said we don't have rattle snakes in Australia.

 

[Mark Harder]

WTH? All reptiles are protected in Australia? All reptiles in Australia are deadly venomous, mate. Including the tiger snake, BTW. As are all spiders, and those platypuses with venomous spines on their rear legs. Or else they're going to eat you and tuck you under a log underwater, like the crocodiles. Or do whatever those waterbuffaloes do to you. I saw Crocodile Dundee, so I know.

 

[Baluncore]

None of the snakes in Tasmania are poisonous.
You can eat all of them, except the venom glands.

 

[sysprog]

None of the snakes in Tasmania are poisonous.
You can eat all of them, except the venom glands.

@Mark Harder said reptiles in Tasmania are "venomous"; not "poisonous". If a venomous snake from Tasmania bites a poisonous frog from Brazil, both the reptile and the amphibian are apt to wind up dead from the encounter.

 

[Mark Harder]

@Mark Harder said reptiles in Tasmania are "venomous"; not "poisonous". If a venomous snake from Tasmania bites a poisonous frog from Brazil, both the reptile and the amphibian are apt to wind up dead from the encounter.

Yep, the snakes are venomous, but those said-to-be-delicious venom glands, they're poisonous.