step/dir servo (Gecko drives)

Some of you may remember how I've been really wishing for a decent
step/dir input servo drive system. Well, the Gecko system has me
drooling, and I want to know more... At the price Mariss is offering
them for, especially when coupled to a surplus motor with an encoder,
WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS over steppers?? Some of you have mentioned
playing with them. What do you think? What are your thoughts on
encoder wheel slot counts? How 'bout steprate output? 7kHz? 100kHz?
What can the LPT port handle? What can the software handle? How's the
performance? Speed? Resolution? System cost? Tune-ability? I still
don't have my 'iron' together, but I want to get a Gecko drive just to
play with it. Especially after playing with the last assembly machine I
completed for a customer using a PLC with stepper output, and a size 17
stepper. Man, did it GROWL! And I don't think it even got close to
resonance. I had it doing rapids of 108 IPM at 7kHz, half-stepping
with a 3A driver and very little load, and the whole time I was thinking
"how fast could I get the servo system to go??". Mmmm...
servo...servo...
Carlos Guillermo
VERVE Engineering & Design




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