I saw on eBay leadshine hybrid stepper motor and controllers for around 300 bucks. They are steppers with encoders so they are closed loop, theoretically no lost steps. Maybe overkill for x carve but could be very cool in general for cnc projects. Anyone have any experience with these?
Yeah I have a MacNC CNC mill.
Originally I bought the open loop version, same as the XCarve is now.
Then I upgraded to their then new Closed loop system (stepper plus encoder), thinking it would allow me to go faster.
This was a mistake. It never worked right.
The problem is the RF noise from the spindle brushes would cause sensor errors with the encoders and it would error and crash.
I added RF chokes, shielded wires, filter caps and wrapped the while thing in foil.
Eventual I got it stable enough to work, but I never was not able to cut and any faster speed.
While in theory you can cut faster, (because if your stepper “slips” the encoder will see it and the controller will adjust. Note: It will do nothing If the belt slips.) in reality, if your machine is properly tuned, your cut speed will be limited by the material and the operation long before stepper motor torque and current issues turn up.
Also the GShield is much more robust and adjustable than my old analog MaxNC control circuit. Bumping up the stepper current on the GShiled is much more effective than any gains I got from my encoder feedback.
I do plan on swapping out the controller on my old MaxNC at some point with a GShiled. Downgrading it back to open loop, but upgrading it to USB / windows 7 compatible system. (no more parallel port DOS setup)