[CNCpatriot]

Hi,

Iam building a DIY CNC router using stepper motors.

1) My first doubt is whether to microstep or to halfstep or full-step.
I have a micro-stepping drive. But not sure about the pros&cons of microstepping vs FullStepping.
Is microstepping really reliable in terms of positioning accuracy, particularly when there is router load?

2) My stepper drive has option of lowering the current to half , when it is not receiving pulses i.e. idle.
Should I use this feature or not? This feature is ON by default. But say Iam cutting a rectangle, when Iam doing X-move, Y-axis will be idle and so will be at half the torque. Is this advisable?

regards

[James Newton]

1. Try all three. Microstepping can help get through mid band resonance and so may help you achieve your systems best speed. The positioning isn't any worse than full or half step... it may not be better. Typically, microstepping introduces more heat in a motor (if your driver is a chopper) and more heat in the driver (if it is a linear driver e.g. Linistepper).

2. Doesn't that typically happen after a few seconds of idle? It would only be an issue on really slow cuts on really large runs. Keep a couple of cheap digital thermometers on your motors and drivers while you test the system and if the temperature is getting out of hand between runs, turn on the idle reduction.