THose add-on boards look good for small motors. I just downloaded the user manual.
But for a machine tool, even a mini-size one you might want more power. Stepper-online has that for about $125 per axis. About adding an index, why swap ou the encoder? just add a magnetic or optical pickup someplace. A larger closed loop motor is going on my mill's vertical axis bacuse it needs to hold a static load. The closed system uses much less power for static loads than do open loop systems. Those add on boards might work on small robot arm I want to build. On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 1:44 PM Greg Bentzinger via Emc-users < emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > {Greg} > > There are options to converting existing steppers to closed loop feed back. > > The LCNC software/hardware option would be to add an encoder and run the > stepper in velocity mode. This does not offer the many advantages of the > direct feedback drivers. > > Then for small steppers there is the Mechaduino bolt on option. Buy direct > from > > https://tropical-labs.com/ > > > https://hackaday.com/2016/06/01/mechaduino-closed-loop-stepper-servos-for-everyone/ > > https://github.com/jcchurch13/Mechaduino-Hardware > > https://github.com/jcchurch13/Mechaduino-Firmware > > The latest firmware release was 26 November 2018 so this is not a dead > item. > > If someone were to build on this open source project and produce a unit > with a 50VDC / 6A working power capacity it could cover most steppers. > > IIRC Gecko drive was once working on this idea and had it working, I think > maybe it was not released because it was not economical and would not match > performance of matched motor drive combos, but that is just my speculation. > > I would like to get one of the matched motor/driver units and see if the > encoder could be replaced with a unit which included a index channel. > > {/Greg} > > > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users