Encoder support

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  • April 29, 2013 at 8:24 am #4070
    mcgyvr
    Member

    Any plans to support some sort of encoders for the axis motors to ensure proper movement?

    May 5, 2013 at 5:37 pm #4109
    alden
    Member

    Steppers and encoders are a long discussion. Steppers – run properly – are not supposed to need encoders. If you drop steps and feel the need for an encoder that it’s a symptom of a different problem – the steppers are being run out of their operating envelope. Sensors are essential for servos (of course), and there are some designs for “servoed steppers”, but at that point they are being run as servos, not steppers.

    I think if we went the encoder route it would be to support full servos. Servoed steppers also hitch a ride but the design would be for servoed operation.

    October 9, 2013 at 10:38 am #4726
    tblough
    Member

    Alden,

    I could use encoders with steppers not as an error detection device, but for position information. There are times that I would like to be able to de-energize my steppers and manually move, by hand, my machine. The encoders would act as a DRO at this point and I could re-engage my steppers at any time without loosing position information. I assume this could also be done if you implemented “servoed steppers”.

    Are there any plans to create a TinyG on steroids? If so, what’s the timeframe?

    February 10, 2014 at 12:21 pm #5406
    martink
    Member

    I think it would be cool to be able to have servos run my x and y axis and steppers for z and other.

    But there are so many different varieties of encoders that it sound like a very non-trivial problem. Would you have plug-in hardware modules that talk over SPI and provide translated position information?

    The servo interface would have to provide PID control, a different paradigm than what steppers use. i.e. you tell the stepper to move in finite steps-at-a-time. With a servo you tell it to move with ‘N’ amount of force.

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