1/8 Stepping

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Advice
1

So been working with the folks over at picengrave to improve my grayscale raster engravings… I was getting a lot “shaking” or ringing during engraves. It was worse when printing from Repetier host and smoother when printing from SD. Makes sense…

They suggested that I set the stepping to 1/8 steps. I figured what the heck it was quick and easy to change. The result was 2 fold… First thing I noticed the steppers were cooler. Not a big deal. Second was the movement was noticeable smoother and I could see the difference in the engraving… Almost no ringing. I suspect that the Arduino was having a hard time spitting out commands fast enough at 1/32.

1/8 stepping gives us a movement resolution of 0.02mm. More then accurate enough for anything I will ever do.

2

Interesting… Do you have pictures comparing your laser engraving with 1/32 and 1/8 stepping?

3

I could take some later tonight. Not sure if the camera will pick it up but I will do my best.

4

yeah I’d be interested as well. I’m trying to decide on my steppers and was tossing 1/16 or 1/32 around but maybe 1/8 would do. thx

5

After probably 100 hours of machine running on 1/8 stepping I see no noticeable difference in quality. Stepper motors themselves seem cooler though.