Multi stepping

[Robin Hewitt]

My take on microstepping is that it's fine and dandy so long as there is no load on the motor.

As you go beyond half step it gets springy. Any stiction means it won't start to move until you're far enough ahead to overcome it, then, suddenly, BOING.

I half step to 10um then add an intermediate 5um microstep but it's only there to smooth things out, it ain't gonna happen :heehee:

[Gary]

Microstepping is not linear (Between full step positions) and should not be relied upon.
the error you will see is only between the full step positions.
I demonstrated this to a customer with a stepper motor set to a high microstepping resolution that had a mirror attached to the shaft and I pointed a laser at the mirror and put a pen mark on the wall on the other side of the room, I then moved the motor 100 microsteps, marked the wall and then moved back 100 microsteps, and the laser was a few cm from the original mark.
Gearing will be better for accuracy, but you have the downside of smoothness, noise, backlash or hysteresis.
If you need accuracy and repeatability with very small increments then closed loop servo would be the way to go (PID driver)