Taig choices

[Pretorien]

Having decided that a CNC'd Taig is the best choice for my application, I've been looking at the various options - there are at least 3 flavors of after-market versions routinely on eBay and then there is the "in house" Microkinetics version that appears to differ in that the steppers are fitted with encoders to effect some form of feedback control. Any comments or observations about the latter?

Thanks

EM

[edferg]

I have a Taig CNC mill with steppers and a home-made driver box using Gecko drives.

Steppers with encoders for feedback are not necessary for this mill in my opinion, and only complicate and add expense to your system. First of all, shaft encoders will not improve the accuracy of your mill. Becuase the encoder is on the motor shaft, it has no way to compensate for lost motion due to backlash. What the encoder can do is tell the controller the motor did not move as far as commanded, due to load or friction or poor "tuning" of the motor. This generally tells the controller to "fault" and stop the system in mid-program.

If your stepper accelleration and max speed are set up correctly, your tables and backlash set correctly, and you don't overload the mill by taking too heavy a cut, then you should not loose steps and therefore would not benefit from encoders.

My Omniturn CNC lathe has ballscrews and servo motors with encoders. Whole different issue on this type of machine.

Ed

[cartertool]

The Taig is available as CNC ready (you bolt on aftermarket steppers/controls, like the Xylotex), standard Steppers (the 2027/2000LE) or the steppers with feedback (3000). Most of my customers buy the CNC ready and then retrofit themselves with Xylotex, etc.

The stock Taig control without feedback is great, relatively bulletproof and for 90% of most work is what you want, or an aftermarket control.

A lot depends on what sort of work you will be doing though - what do you want to do on the Taig?

Originally Posted by Pretorien Having decided that a CNC'd Taig is the best choice for my application, I've been looking at the various options - there are at least 3 flavors of after-market versions routinely on eBay and then there is the "in house" Microkinetics version that appears to differ in that the steppers are fitted with encoders to effect some form of feedback control. Any comments or observations about the latter? Thanks EM

[Stepper Monkey]

I would also agree that an encoder system on the Taig is not money particularly well-spent. Less money simply spent on good, solid motors and powerful controllers like Geckos in the first place will eliminate the only problem motor encoders would have been able to look for anyway - missed steps.

I have had experience working on several of the flavors of Taig available on Ebay. If you do get a kit from Ebay, go with a xylotex-based system - the other kind is, frankly, underpowered and of absolute crap design.

[GammaWill]

I just bought the Taig 2018 CR-ER which is the smallest Taig but CNC ready (motor mounts & ER-16 Spindle)

I'm using 3V Automation Direct 276oz/in steppers @ 48V, each driven by an eighth stepping Gecko 201 under Mach3 in Windows XP.

I have not lost any steps that I can detect. But, then again, at 0.00003" per step, I would probably never even notice a miss!

---Will Chapman : BrickArms.com

[redrider9112002]

I'm selling my taig. its the 2000LE with 4th axis and lots of tools and accesories. Email me for more information. redrider9112002@yahoo.com , Andrew