I have a machine on order with the EX controller and Clearpath servos. Would I be able to hook up a stepper motor driven rotary with it? Looking at the EX controller it looks like it doesn’t come with stepper drivers if you get the servos since they don’t require them, but would it be as simple as adding a stepper driver to run the rotary? Or would I be limited to a servo driven rotary?
You are correct: Servo controllers don’t include any stepper drivers.
In the case of the rotary we sell a servo rotary:
That’s plug and play right into your new EX control.
If you were running a 3rd party rotary you could technically wire up a stepper driver… The Acorn just outputs step and direction signals to both stepper and servo… However on Servo systems we use the Acorn screw terminals, and on stepper system we use the Acorn DB25 plug.
Centroid recommends screw terminals for servos, and the Db25 for steppers.
You could mix and match a stepper driver if you want to, but I think you’d be better off either getting our rotary, or if you need a different servo motor getting one from Teknic that you could plug right into our servo system (If you do this you WILL need to set the motor up and tune it)
I might be able to give you better advice if I knew a little more about what you were trying to do.
Thanks for the quick response. I asked mainly out of curiosity, since I have a rotary 4th axis from my Tormach mill that is stepper driven, and I was wondering if it would work on the router if I ever decided to try a rotary project.
Those rotaries are nice. I’d put a servo on it if I were you