Servos or steppers?

[FishOnAComputer]

I am looking to start a ambitious project but am unsure if I should use servos or steppers. I don't want to go and say what it is since it is very ambitious but I understand the support for servo motors and stepper motors are different and servos are generally better for hobby work but what are the advantages? It seems servos provide high torque but make that cheap gear sound and are not very fast.

[svmlegacy]

6 minutes ago, Alvaro_avalos said:

I am looking to start a ambitious project but am unsure if I should use servos or steppers. I don't want to go and say what it is since it is very ambitious but I understand the support for servo motors and stepper motors are different and servos are generally better for hobby work but what are the advantages? It seems servos provide high torque but make that cheap gear sound and are not very fast.

Just roll with steppers until you need servos; they're cheaper and easier to work with. The only time servo's are truely needed is when you feekback on rotation. (Steppers can "lose" steps if you drive them too hard.)

[FishOnAComputer]

1 minute ago, svmlegacy said:

Just roll with steppers until you need servos; they're cheaper and easier to work with. The only time servo's are truely needed is when you feekback on rotation. (Steppers can "lose" steps if you drive them too hard.)

Does this mean I can interface with them with a general driver board? I also am not sure how people interface with and use servos, I do plan on having some feedback with some parts but have never seen what driver circuits people use for these.

[FishOnAComputer]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

With stepper there is a step dir or digital communication with servo mostly digital.

Actually servos can be faster and smoother but cost a lot more then stepper.  Another major difference is that servos often require breaks (so some additional electronic) while a stepper does this with it's holding torque.

There is also something in between stepper and servo called closed loop stepper which provides absolute positioning feedback.

 

For most application a stepper motor is good enough as you shouldn't loose step and have the option to home it to get it into a known position/state.

what do you recommend to start development with closed loop steppers? like driver devices and logic devices?