[ticica]

I have a Gecko G320 step/direction servo controller driving a DC servo motor with an encoder. I am using Kflop to provide step/dir output for G320 and also to get the encoder position. G320 has gain, damping, current limit trimpots for tuning (See G320 manual). What would be a recommended way tune this system? Should I tune the G320 independently first? Or there is a better way?

[TomKerekes]

Hi ticica,

All the servo tuning will of course need to be made in the Gecko with the pots because it is closing the loop. But you can use the KMotion Step Response Screen like a scope to observe the performance as well as make moves of different Sizes, Velocities, Accelerations, and Jerks for testing performance.



HTH
Regards

[ticica]

Thanks Tom. I figured that tuning the Gecko would be the way to go, and have proceeded as you suggested.
I noticed your demo of tuning a closed loop stepper system at this page. Would it be possible to close the loop around my system through the encoder, effectively creating two loops? Would there be any possible benefits in such an arrangement? How about the downsides?

[TomKerekes]

Hi ticica,

I don't think there would be any real benefit with two loops around the same encoder. The Gecko should close the loop properly. If it doesn't due to encoder noise or lost step pulses it would be better to fix the root problem rather than try to compensate for it with another loop.

If you were to add another encoder (linear scales) then there could be significant benefits to running a dual loop.

Regards