Why are 3D printers still stuck on stepper motors? Why haven’t we transitioned to servo motors with encoder feedback for positioning?
Is it just too cost prohibitive for the consumer-level? We would be able to print a lot faster and more accurately if we had position feedback on the axes. Instead we just rely blindly on the stepper not skipping any steps when we tell it to move, hoping for the best.
You will not get a better system when using servos no matter the price point at the moment. People have tried and failed just because the software support isn’t there yet for 3d printing.
The biggest issue I’m aware of is matching the timing between the extruder stepper and the servos that do the XY motion.
Which isn’t apparent at lower speeds but at higher speeds you can notice they’re no longer in sync which leads to all sorts of issues and artifacts.
I’m currently waiting on some 3 phase steppers and drivers to test to hopefully get something with less speed deviation than a normal 2 phase stepper and more reverse torque but don’t cost too much and are still easily driven by connecting a driver to your boards step/dir output.
