Hello all,
I've been able to understand how steppers work pretty well from computer through everything all the way to the motor. Even gotten a few running here and there.
I've started digging into servos, and I mostly understand those. My confusion comes in between the computer and the servo drive. I've never seen a fully comprehensive layout of a servo system from computer to motor.
I suppose it depends on the drive mainly, but it seems that many I've seen (outside of high end stuff like Fanuc) take a pulse and direction command, just like a stepper (it seems?). If this is truly the case, what would prevent me from taking my stepper break out board and wiring the pulse and direction output pins to the pulse and direction input pins of the servo drives?
I've also seen Breakout boards, which seem to be simply an isolation board. And I've also seen what are called motion control boards. I can't quite tell the difference here. For example CNC4PC has a 'Breakout Board' listing as well as a 'Motion Control' listing, but under the Motion control listing it has what appear to be simply breakout boards.
I get the impression the motion control boards circumvent the PC all together. But then how do we load G code on these? is there an operator interface? Are these mainly just for special purpose-built machines with little to no user input?
Sorry for the long post, I've dug through Google countless hours and seem to have come up with more questions than when I started. '
If anyone has any insight on any of this, or maybe a link to a clear concise connection diagram from computer all the way through servo motor, I'd appreciate it.