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Energy Consumption and Efficiency of Micro Actuators
I’ve been messing around with a small battery-powered project, and I’m trying to understand how much of a difference micro actuators make when it comes to energy consumption. I used a regular linear actuator before, and it drained my battery pack way faster than I expected. Now I’m considering switching to a micro version, but I don’t want to buy something that still ends up too power-hungry for what I’m doing. Has anyone noticed a real efficiency improvement when going smaller, or is it more about how often the actuator cycles?
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Yeah, going smaller can help, but it really depends on the load and the duty cycle. In one of my prototypes I used a tiny actuator to move a sliding panel, and it barely touched the battery unless it ran constantly. What I found useful was checking the no-load current and stall current before picking the right model. The miniature actuator https://www.progressiveautomations.com/pages/micro-linear-actuators breaks that down clearly, so it’s easier to compare. If your mechanism doesn’t need much force, micro actuators usually sip power compared to the full-size ones, especially when paired with a decent controller that avoids unnecessary movement.