Closed-loop steppers, was: breakout boards plus - hard choice

Jon

You seem to be assuming rotary encoders mountes directly on the stepper shaft. That still
makes assumptions about the linearity of the mechanical drive components. What if a
timing belt breaks? Seems more like "partially-closed-loop" to me. What about feedback
from linear encoders reading actual position? More costly, of course.

Steve

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Jon Elson <elson@...> wrote:
>
> scyvt wrote:
> >
> > Pico's offerings are generally servo oriented, however the
>> "The Universal Stepper controller is a small board with everything
>> needed to control a 2-, 3- or 4 axis machine tool with
>> stepper motors except for the stepper drivers."
>>


> Right, and you have the choice, by individual axis, to have it
> open-loop or closed-loop. The advantages with closed-loop are
> that you can shut off the stepper drives and move the machine
> manually without losing your axis coordinates, and that any
> excessive following error can be detected. You can always add
> this capability later.
>
> Jon
>