Stepper motor and rotary table

[ksor]

I just got control of my step motor from on old HP matrix printer with a small C# program of my own.

I'm not impressed of the "power" of the motor. I want to use it for turning my rotary table to make the table a simple dividing head.

To be sure the stepper has turned the table the degrees I want it to I see too solutions:

1) use some kind of feed back to my program to insure that in fact the table has turned the degrees the stepper was told to turn the table by the program

OR

2) use a stepper so strong I sure it can turn the table - even with some resistance - no feed back is needed because the stepper is so "strong" I can be sure it has turned the table

What is the "all round best" solution ?

[vger]

Closed loop is generally best (feed back to the controller) but it requires additional hardware (encoder) and software to read the feedback. I don't know what rotary table you have, but you could use reduction drive from the stepper you have to gain the torque needed. Small timing belt/pullys setup might work for you.

Steve

[SORCHEROR]

cheapest way would be to use a larger stepper
steppers have the most torgue at low rpm,and a rotary runs fairly slow anyway,so pulley
reduction on a small stepper wont always give better results,i prefer a larger stepper with direct drive,if you use a small stepper with endcoer (closed loop)you will know its moving correctly but,your motor still wont have the power to cut much

[ksor]

Thanks for the "feedback" SORCHEROR and vger !