Re: What makes a motor a servo?

Hmmm, I agree that servos far exceed steppers in performance. It's
almost impossible to find anyone who uses steppers anymore for
commercial CNC or any high end motion control application(please prove
me wrong).

There is always the uncertainty that steps will be lost in a stepper
system. Mariss is tackling this by developing a stepper driver which
will correct for lost steps. But now we have a system which is every
bit as complicated as a servo system with the weak performance of a
stepper system. I think the best solution would be a good source for
chinese brushless motors(with encoders), and an inexpensive digital
drive with AC commutation and "wake and shake" capability. This would
provide unbelievable power and speed, while being extremely reliable
and zero maintanance (and no need for hall sensors). I'm sure that
Mariss could develop a drive if there was a source of cheap brushless
servo motors. But it appears all we have are lemons(steppers), so
we'll have to make lemonade :(

P.S. Mariss, you said you were working on a brushless controller at
one time, is that idea dead?