Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Tormach stepper motors

rocketscientistnate wrote:
I'm running Gecko 201's with the

> original steppers, and I thinking that if I trade those out for some
> new steppers it will probably fix it. I'm looking at some from
> Tormach, I understand their mills are pretty good so maybe their motors
> are too. First I want to make sure the 1200 oz-in is the right size,
> maybe the 640 oz-in for the z and a axes.

Why do you believe changing the motors will stop it from losing
steps? Does it do this only on occasion or frequently? Do you
hear obvious stalls of the motors, or is the positioning just
creeping over time?

What software are you running? What type of interface do you
have between the parallel port and the Gecko drives?

There are well-known problems between certain programs, certain
settings and certain vintages of Gecko drives that misinterpret
step command right around direction changes. The older Gecko
210 drives with the pulse multipliers are the most finicky, but
you can get almost any Gecko 201 to do the same (lose a step
often during axis reversal) if the timing between the step
pulses and the direction signal is not right. I wouldn't lay
out serious money on new motors until I was sure this problem
was ruled out.

Jon