Quote Originally Posted by Davek0974 View Post
The issues i had/have are all tuning related really - the manual i was sent by the guy was in strong Chinglish so not really much use to a beginner like me. To get a really good tune i am convinced i need to alter the parameters in the drives but cannot do this.
Ok I've been watching and stayed out of this until now because don't have any experience with Triac's or there power requiements but need to make this clear to defend chinese servos.
Dave I'm not having a go at you so please don't take it this way just want to point out for sake of others that the parameters can be changed in the drives to give better tuning. Yes it's fiddly process with lots of parameters and the Chinglish manual doesn't help or make it simple but this is why they are so cheap.
If folks want simplicity in tuning then buy branded name but expect to pay the same amount of money for one axis as you would 3 axis worth from China and still have spare change.!

To the OP.
In terms of performance then servos are no comparison to steppers in most cases. However that doesn't mean Servos are always better for the application. IMO for DIY level Mill or router then steppers are perfectly fine. Much simpler with far less hassle for not lot of money.

I can tell you with absolute confidence because I fit both on nearly all machines I build that the AM or EM drives give excellent performance which I've yet to see beaten for the money. Reliabilty so far after fitting good few hundred has been 99.9% with only one none starter. By that mean never had one fail in use and only one which didn't work out of the box.

The Cslabs Controllers are Top notch which ever you use and again you won't get better.

Regards Steppers then provided you buy ones with sensible spec in terms of inductance etc then they all pretty much work the same.

What I will say is that on Denford and Boxford router conversions I've done where all has been replaced with New steppers, AM882 drives and Cslabs controllers the performance difference is Night and Day turns the machine into different animal.