Has anyone used an O-drive before? was thinking about getting one to use on my laser cutter X-axis for engraving quicker but I am worried about how precise the driver is. https://odriverobotics.com/
I haven't used one, though I've seen them mentioned before from reasonably reputable-looking places and I've looked into it. The idea is solid, and one I've occasionally thought about tackling from scratch before- and clearly this guy actually did it. There are some definite caveats, though: 1) The community is tiny. Motion control is pretty small. DIY motion control is tiny. DIY industrial motion control is almost non-existent. There's a non-zero chance you're solving your own problems. 2) The community is tiny. This seems to be the passion project of like, one guy. Spending hundreds of dollars on something that becomes orphanware may not seem like a thrilling prospect (the flip side of this, of course, is that as long as there's a working version always available, there are only so many upgrades you can apply to a servo drive- they're jelly bean parts). 3) Low voltage BLDCs have big thirst. You could need up to 70A, maybe even 100A, PER MOTOR power supply capacity. Most likely linear, not switched. Probably best to DIY it, but don't kill yourself with the size of capacitor it needs after the rectifier. The unit has the option for a battery instead of a dump resistor (Clearpath's PSUs do as well, as I recall). But there's a reason industrial servos run on 240/380/480VAC. (Reality check here: a laser axis with GT2 belt, as they say on the main page, is basically limited to 250W. At 48V, that's only 5-6A per motor. For one motor, that's a regular 48V 7A PSU, no problem.) The videos look fantastic and the price is great though. If it works, it works. It should, as a proper tuneable servo drive, be accurate essentially down to either the bandwidth of the encoder or the processor. I'm sure it's capable of hitting microns with appropriate hardware. My main concern for full usage, as with most projects, is power supply.
