misan
commented
4 years ago Hi @just-jason,
A step multiplier could be something easy to do, but ... a motor with a gearbox might need to turn at high speeds to get the job done. And while doing so it might create a high rate of encoder pulses that, again, might be a problem for an 8-bit microcontroller.
So while the multiplier would reduce the number of step pulses needed (thus reducing the microcontroller interrupt rate), it will not avoid the high rate of encoder pulses (which may still be a problem).
Given that nowadays a 32-bit microcontroller is cheaper, faster, and more energy-efficient than older 8-bit microcontrollers, I would go that way whenever the Arduino-based solution is not fast enough.
just-jason
RudyFiero
The max step frequency is often a limiting factor with 8 bit controllers. When using geared motor setups for the servo it is not uncommon to end up with an unnecessarily high encoder step count if the mounting of the encoder on the gearbox shaft is not possible or desired, but rather only on the motor shaft. Sending the required high step signal rate becomes problematic with higher speeds for a slower 8 bit controler. Would it be possible to introduce something like a step multiplier so that each step signal sent by the controller is treated as a signal to move x steps by the servo. I would expect a range of integers between 1-10 should probably cover most cases. The loss in accuracy would in my case be negligible. The mechanical accuracy and stability are never going to be comparable to the theoretical accuracy achieved when fully counting each of the encoder pulses.