Chinese Servo tuning

[BigBrand]

All the install procedure was.. i was thinking what on earth am i installing here.

Can anybody who knows what they are talking about (not me) confirm if this is whats necessary to successfully tune the motors?

It certainly doesnt look as user friendly as the delta stuff.

[Hood]

It is certainly not user friendly and likely could be used for tuning but without instructions on how to use I think it could be quite frustrating.

[BigBrand]

think im going to swerve these

[Hood]

Likewise, I think the Deltas are the way to go for me if the need arises. They are a bit more expensive but not a huge amount and the documentation and software more than makes up the cost difference in my opinion. Add to that I have heard good things from several people about them then it seems the wise choice.

[Muzzer]

I have the Lichuan "software" installed on 2 of my machines, both Windows 10. One won't work at all when I try to run it and the other gives errors but still "works". But as you say, the "software" simply allows you to type in the parameter values in a sort of spreadsheet format which can be read and written. It's rather underwhelming but the motor + drive cost was dirt cheap, not least as I got a promotional offer. The features available within the Lichuan are minimal but at least they actually seem to work as servos. Be aware that the fan is always enabled with these and they are noisy.

I also have Yaskawa and DMM Tech servos, both of which have recognisable software for tuning the transient response in a meaningful way. The DMM Techs are pretty reasonable but my early DYN2s are set up more like stepper drives than pukka servos. They are somewhere between hobby and industrial in build quality and features.

The Yaskawas are pretty much the gold standard for industrial servos. The software is almost overwhelming in terms of what it offers and the features in the Sigma drives are also very comprehensive. But at least you have config wizards and tuning tools. One of the key challenges is the Japanese equivalent of Chinglish ie understanding WTF they meant when they wrote the words I'm sure they knew themselves.

The Deltas look close to the Yaskawas, which perhaps isn't a surprise, as they are proper industrial drives too. If you can grapple with the documentation, a Delta or a used Yaskawa might be the sweet spot for me. Depends what you want to do and how much dosh you want to spend....

[Hood]

I have used quite a few different servo drives over the years from Osai (rebadged Electrocraft BRU) to Allen Bradley DDM, Allen Bradley DSD (which I still have on the plasma, lathe and one mill) , Telemecanique (Schneider/Berger Lahr) Lexium drives (on my Chiron) and even Samsung CSDJ drives. All had some form of software for tuning even the ancient Osai drives (still have a few :D ) it was in Windows HyperTerminal that you tuned it with, it had a rudimentary auto tuning and also a manual tuning and I am sure it had outputs you could connect a scope to.

Alll of the other drives, as said, had software for configuring I/O , tuning etc and all had auto tuning and manual tuning capability. The Allen Bradleys worked reasonably well with auto tuning but could be further tweaked manually if you wished better, the software was very user friendly. Likewise the Telemecanique Lexiums although I would say their auto tuning was a bit better but the software was definitely not as user friendly as the AB ones. The wee Samsung though was excellent, software was decent, not as good as AB but better than Telemecanique but the tuning was basically automatic and worked exceptionally well with no need for any manual tuning on the wee lathe I had it on.

[Muzzer]

The "autotuning" on the DMM Tech DYN2s was laughably useless. But at least you could set a variety of demand waveforms through the GUI and observe the response graphically while fiddling with the settings.

[BigBrand]

Interesting.. so whats involved with your lichuan drives then? Or do you not need to and they just 'work'?

[Muzzer]

At the moment I'm cutting air on the bench, so in that respect "they just work". But when I have them installed for real, I will need to tune them. At which point the true horror of the "tuning" process will become apparent.

I suppose one option may be to use the LinuxCNC controls to do that without changing the Lichuans. For now, that isn't at the front of the list.

I've just made my own HTD3 pulley due to the crap backlash in the Chinesium pulleystock used in the pulleys I got from Bearingboys. Wasn't planning on doing that but it seemed the only concrete solution, short of buying loads of random pulleys from various suppliers and hoping some were ok. Also gave me the opportunity to break out the 4th axis again. This uses a Yaskawa Sigma servo and motor.

With an iPhone and Windows 10, this forum doesn't know which orientation to use on the photos, although they look OK in W10. Every forum seems to be different! What is the way to fix it here?

[3Dogs]

At the moment I'm cutting air on the bench, so in that respect "they just work". But when I have them installed for real, I will need to tune them. At which point the true horror of the "tuning" process will become apparent.

I suppose one option may be to use the LinuxCNC controls to do that without changing the Lichuans. For now, that isn't at the front of the list.

I've just made my own HTD3 pulley due to the crap backlash in the Chinesium pulleystock used in the pulleys I got from Bearingboys. Wasn't planning on doing that but it seemed the only concrete solution, short of buying loads of random pulleys from various suppliers and hoping some were ok. Also gave me the opportunity to break out the 4th axis again. This uses a Yaskawa Sigma servo and motor.

With an iPhone and Windows 10, this forum doesn't know which orientation to use on the photos, although they look OK in W10. Every forum seems to be different! What is the way to fix it here?

@Muzzer -
Did you ever get the Lichuan A4 and servos running and tuned?
I am thinking of buying these, but the lack of support for the tuning process is worrying.