Re: Servo Drivers
What Joeavarage said above ^^^^^^^^^^ Up until just the last few years, the electronics in the drives were so large they could not be attached to the motor. But like everything else, drive electronics are getting smaller.
I have never used Delta products but have heard good things about them. I have used both DMM and ClearPath systems and have been happy with the performance. Both have their place, but in most applications the DMM systems are a better fit and are less expensive.
Hybrid stepper systems are still stepper motors, and subject to the limitations of stepper motors. A little better than an open loop stepper system, but they do not have the performance of an AC servo motor system.
A servo is not a type of motor or motor/driver combination. A servo is any system that has a feedback loop, your home heating system for instance. You (the controller) set the thermostat to a comfortable level, the heater turns on, and when the room temperature reaches the set temperature the heater turns off. The feedback in this case is the air temperature acting on the thermostat.
Another example of a very complex servo system is an automobile and driver. You as the driver receive feedback from everything going on around you and the controller (your brain) processes all of that data and causes your muscles to feed the correct outputs to the various systems in the automobile, stearing, throttle, and braking.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA