Apparent Step Errors MKII

Hi Sam;

Table is loosely based on this design, with mods to accommodate the 4:1 reduction as recommended by Tommy.
www.instructables.com/CNC-Plasma-Table/

I tried as you suggested with the motors energized and couldn't budge the X and Y axis. The Z has a bit of deflection in the torch holding plate but I doubt that would be a problem as there is no real load on it when cutting.

Any other lines of thought would be greatly appreciated, as the table seems to work otherwise but I have a need to cut out a number of flanges and getting circles accurate is critical

Thanks

John

Thanks Tommy;

With the motors de-energized I can move the gantry with some effort and the Y axis moves OK as well.

Do I need bigger motors? The current ones are 3.1nM 4.2A. NEMA 23s
Thanks

John

You are getting a very consistent error, to me this does not indicate step losses..

I use similar motors at ~2:1 and don't have any issues similar to what you are experiencing, although I gave up trying to get cheap chinese drivers to work

All the best
Sam

Will do today.

Thanks

John

Thanks Sam;

Could you tell me which drivers you use? Maybe worth checking into. Will post some pics later today my time as per Tommy's request.

Cheers

John

Hi Tommy and Sam;

I am using DM542T stepper controllers. They are set to 4.2A for X and Y and set to 400 steps per rev. I tried higher micro stepping (I think there was some pics earlier) and this made no appreciable difference.

Thanks for your help.

John

Maybe unrelated, but just for good wiring practice, I'd try to have some separation between the signals to the stepper drivers (and any other logic signals) and the output from the stepper drivers to the stepper motors.