Motor Duty Cycle

[Rson]

Just want to make sure my thought process is correct before I proceed.

I have a linear actuator with a 3min / 17min duty cycle (3 on, 17 off)

I don't necessarily need to run it continuously, but it might need to make small adjustments a few times a minute. Every second the motor is energized I add 1 to a duty on counter and if that counter is full, I de-energize and set the off time. When that timer is up, it re-enables the motor again.

Am I wrong to think I could reduce this to 3 seconds on and 17 seconds off instead of minutes? It is just a factor of 60, and after 60 times it would have been on for 3 minutes and off for 17.

I would think that is acceptable; but I'm used to dealing with continuous duty motors. This is the first time I've run into one with a duty cycle.

 

[widelto]

There is a good document (book) called : A Comprehensible Guide to Servo Motor Sizing.
It explains very good duty cycle subject on motor sizing choice.

 

[JBooth]

A 15% duty cycle for a linear actuator seems very low. Is the actuator undersized for the application?
Duty cycle is the ratio of runtime to rest time at a given load. Even continuous duty motors have a duty cycle. A 100% duty cycle can run continuously at rated load, but if load goes above rated, you would have to stop and let it rest. If duty cycle is less than 100%, there should be a maximum runtime value in the specs as well. As long as you keep your cycle at 15% on vs. off if duty cycle is 15%, and do not exceed maximum runtime without the rest period between, you shouldn't have any issues. 3 seconds on to 17 seconds off is still 15%, and 3 seconds is less than original listed 3 minutes, so that is fine within the parameters provided.

Edit: i was thinking of standard motor duty cycle, servo motor duty cycle. disregard this.