Re: More about motors?

Joe Vicars wrote:

>Boy did you open a can of worms.

Joe, No kidding! LOL

Ballendo (more below)

>>Smoke wrote:
>>Can anyone tell me the differences between stepper motors and servo
>>motors? Or are these the same "animals" with different names?
>>If different, then what are the advantages/disadvantages of using
>>one or the other?

Smoke,

The sales literature of techno-isel might be a good reference for
you. Keep in mind it is "advertorial". (looks like truth, but is
advertising) They sell BOTH steppers and servos, so they have no ax
to grind, on THIS topic...

Also, the AhHa! website used to (I think) have a step vs. servo
listing.

And the Galil people will tell you why servos are better.

My $.02 It used to be simpler. Servos were faster, more expensive,
closed-loop, and subject to "upkeep". New servo self-tuning drives,
cheap encoders, more usage in common applications (means the general
knowledge to use 'em is more readily available) have reduced some of
the "price of admission" for servo systems. The new Step/servos (like
Gecko) which close the loop within the drive blur the distinctions
even more. Making servos a good choice.

Steppers are still cheaper, but not by as much. Still slower. Usually
open-loop. Stepper magnetics has improved the torque/pkg. size. But
this is true of servos too! A stepper system properly sized and
implemented is a hard working, long lasting, inexpensive solution to
motion control. And the "closed-loop" steppers blur it some more...

Hope this helps.

Ballendo