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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • I kind of disagree with you, in that when I think about the standalone meanings of the words in each phrase, I think they do say the same thing.

    The meaning of the words “You are welcome [to the help I gave you]” implies, to me, that there wasn’t actually anything to offer thanks over. You’re acknowledging their thanks, but telling them that they are welcome to take/use whatever it is you’re talking about. [EDIT: normally when someone tells me I’m welcome to something, I feel less compelled to ask and thank in the future. “You’re welcome to anything in the fridge”, for example.]

    It does not imply, to me, that I would appreciate them returning the favour. That might be implied meaning in the phrase, but it’s definitely not what those words mean by themselves.

    In any case, “You’re welcome”, “no problem”, “no worries”, etc… are all idioms that mean something different than what their individual words mean. The phrases as a whole carry a different meaning than the words themselves suggest.







  • Eranziel@lemmy.world
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    to3DPrinting@lemmy.worldWhy do we still use stepper motors?
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    6 months ago

    I disagree with all your points. What kind of servos are you talking about?

    BLDC and AC servos maintain full torque at stop too, and have about 2-3× the torque of a stepper of similar size.

    The only way a stepper can rival a servo for precision is with a high degree of microstepping, which is far from guaranteed positioning with open loop control.

    I haven’t directly compared response time between steppers and servos, but I would be extremely surprised if there’s a significant enough difference to worry about. Most servo-controlled machines are larger and so are designed to accelerate slower than a printer, if that’s what you mean. This is intentional because inertia is a thing you have to worry about, not because the servo reacts to command changes slowly.

    There are valid reasons steppers are used on printers, but it’s not because they have superior performance.


  • Cost is the short version, yes.

    I don’t know what kind of servos everyone here is talking about that are less precise than open loop steppers. Low quality hobbyist stuff, I guess? Proper servo motors & drives are the standard for good reason for robotics, industrial CNC machines, and pretty much everything else that needs powerful motors with high precision. Much higher power density, higher RPM (good for increasing torque with a gearbox), equivalent or better precision, plus closed loop control is a huge capability and safety gain.

    That said, good, industrial quality servo motors are 1) expensive and 2) aren’t made in small enough sizes to be comparable to the steppers on most 3D printers. Even the smallest industrial servo + drive I’ve seen is about 5x as big as the steppers on a personal 3D printer and costs $800ish. Obviously, both are deal breakers for a personal 3D printer.

    3D printers are a fairly ideal application for steppers. The moving parts are small and light, meaning you both don’t need a large motor and the danger of slippage is lower. Plus, steppers are cheap.