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Message |
    
vadeem
Registered
Username: Vid1900
Post Number: 17
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 05:45 am: | 
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http://www.orientalmotor.com/in_motion/october_2004.htm
This page shows some zero backlash gearing for stepper motors. Can we use any of this to our advantage? |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 508
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 06:59 am: |
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Thanks for that link vadeem, it cleared up the mystery of the "Taper Hob" gear for me.
Sure, you can use it, but I don't know if there will be a significant advantage compared to the cost. The MechMate style machine doesn't particularly have a backlash problem, so I don't think you need to look for a cure. |
Greg Waggy
Registered
Username: Gawnca
Post Number: 84
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 07:28 am: |
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CNCZone has a thread dedicated to this topic.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20527 |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 509
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 08:07 am: |
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Greg, that CNCzone discussion is purely on backlash for screw driven axes. Backlash on low-cost screws is a big problem and a reason for a MechMate to use spring-loaded rack & pinion instead. A MechMate with pinions direct on the motor shaft has zero backlash. Period.
The folk using the standard gearboxes from Oriental Motor, also with spring-loaded rack & pinions, are not complaining of backlash either. But I have no personal experience of it. That is something that I still want to try for myself - my gut feel is that it will be fine. |
Greg Waggy
Registered
Username: Gawnca
Post Number: 85
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 09:00 am: |
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It uses the same prencipal, spring loading on the threads. Your's is a lot more simple if in fact there is zero backlash. With what I have in mind for building, I'll be using both ACME rod and rack and pinion systems, so I need all the input I can get. |
Sheldon Dingwall
Registered
Username: Sheldon_dingwall
Post Number: 15
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 05:50 pm: |
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I haven't measured it, but there's a lot more play in my gearboxes now than when they were new. |
Mike Richards
Registered
Username: Richards
Post Number: 17
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Friday, November 24, 2006 - 05:55 pm: |
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The gearbox offering from Oriental Motor is only available on some of their $$$ motors. The motor/driver/gearbox combination cost more than $2,200 when I last checked. After-market gearboxes with basically the same specs can be found at www.baysidemotion.com. Their gearboxes are in the $700 to $1,000 range.
Ballscrews with double nuts usually can be adjusted to near-zero backlash. Since typical ball-screws aready have a 5:1 ratio, doubling or tripling the ratio can be done with a belt-drive gearbox. By the way, a 5:1 ball screw would require 10,000 steps from a Gecko driver to move one inch. On a non-geared rack/pinion machine using a 1-inch pitch diameter spur gear (20-tooth, 20-pitch), it only takes about 636.94 steps to move one inch, meaning that resolution on a non-geared r/p is 0.00157 inches while resolution on the 5:1 ball screw would be 0.0001 inches - or 15.7 X better than the r/p. (Be aware that there are many other factors that make ball-screws less atractive on a CNC-router. A rack/pinion system is relatively accurate, robust, simple to maintain and inexpensive to build. I haven't found the need to improve the resolution when cutting wood products - that start warping the second after I take them off the Shopbot.) |
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