A system comprising a host device configured to request a haptic effect from a peripheral device, the peripheral device configured to perform operations including: receiving a request from the host device to generate a haptic effect at a specified intensity; determining an operating range of a motor configured to generate the haptic effect on the peripheral device, where the operating range defines a maximum force that the motor can generate in a linear region of operation, and the operating range changes based on a temperature of the motor; scaling the specified intensity of the haptic effect based on the determined operating range of the motor; and controlling the operation of the motor to generate the haptic effect at the scaled specified intensity, where the scaling is performed by the peripheral device.