Can you mix servo's & steppers on a machine?

[barkster]

I have a three axis router but want to add a fourth which already has a servo motor on it. Is this possible? Can I still use my same breakout board just a different gecko driver? Thanks

[InspirationTool]

Seems reasonable to me.

I'm not sure what is required for tuning a servo, but I understand you need to do it to make things work.

-Jeff

[hoga01]

You can use any servo drive that has a digital input but the setup can be a real pain in the butt. What kind of servo is on your fourth axis? Brush or brushless? Gecko doesn't make any brushless (AC) servo drives that I'm aware of and thier brush type drive isn't all that great.

Don

[mmjpotter]

If you are using a ‘True’ closed-loop controller ---- No.

If you are using an ‘open-loop’ controller i.e Mach3 with Gecko drives then Yes.
Gecko drives can convert your DC servo motors into steppers by closing the servo loop internally,but the control will not have a clue what is actually happening and will continue to issue independent commands to each axis regardless of their relative positions.

[vger]

Some time ago I stumbled across a chip that accepts step and dir inputs and has an analog output to go to a dc servo drive. It required an encoder on the motor fed back to the chip. Would only error if the servo got more than a certain number of encoder pulses off of where it should be. I think it had a couple of up/down counters in it and a comparitor that fed a DAC for the analog out. I'll look for it again and post what I find unless someone else beats me to it
Steve

[vger]

have not found the chip yet, but here is a link to a Copley product that will drive a servo with step/dir inputs and encoder on the motor.

http://www.copleycontrols.com/motion...icro_Panel.pdf

they got other stuff too...

Steve

[bluejay_ca]

Barkster - as already said what info do you have on your motor.
I use PacSci drives servo and stepper all on step/dir inputs.

[barkster]

I really don't know anything about this servo motor other than the model. It is off a rotory device I bought off a surplus website for like $15. The motor is a Glob Motors 409A582 - 12VDC

[bluejay_ca]

You have to give us some info, try google, try the mfr's site etc.