Thanks for the tips.
I plan on running belts.
And I would probably go for .5 mm hot-end for what I do,
but wouldn't mind having one of the nozzles be .35 mm (or .2 mm).
What are the downsides to running multiple motors in parallel off of a single stepper-driver?
It seems to me that the biggest downside would be a potential power (current) limitation.
The other option seems to be to run multiple stepper-drivers in parallel with the controller,
But Cefiar points out that this configuration could prove problematic if steps were to be missed.
I guess the next question is:
What's the likelihood of missing steps?
And when we talk about missing "steps", is that the same thing as missing "micro-steps"?
For example, if a stepper were to miss a "micro-step", does it correct itself at the next full-step? (For some reason I'm picturing "full-step" positions as check-points for micro-stepping, which may very well not be the case...)
And if said motors are linked with a belt (as shown in the QU-BD printer, what effect would one of them missing a step have on the other?... hum...)
Thanks again guys for the feedback.
Still not sure which controller I should start with,
(or whether or not the controller is a good place to start)
I plan on running belts.
And I would probably go for .5 mm hot-end for what I do,
but wouldn't mind having one of the nozzles be .35 mm (or .2 mm).
What are the downsides to running multiple motors in parallel off of a single stepper-driver?
It seems to me that the biggest downside would be a potential power (current) limitation.
The other option seems to be to run multiple stepper-drivers in parallel with the controller,
But Cefiar points out that this configuration could prove problematic if steps were to be missed.
I guess the next question is:
What's the likelihood of missing steps?
And when we talk about missing "steps", is that the same thing as missing "micro-steps"?
For example, if a stepper were to miss a "micro-step", does it correct itself at the next full-step? (For some reason I'm picturing "full-step" positions as check-points for micro-stepping, which may very well not be the case...)
And if said motors are linked with a belt (as shown in the QU-BD printer, what effect would one of them missing a step have on the other?... hum...)
Thanks again guys for the feedback.
Still not sure which controller I should start with,
(or whether or not the controller is a good place to start)