Guys what do you think about this
Wembi – Closed Loop Motorupgrade for 3D Printer, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/109167261/wembi-closed-loop-motorupgrade-for-3d-printer
I think that it is nice that 2 different closed loop system kickstarters are going on right now. More options means more possible advancement in the field.
I like the drop-in design, though deltas would need 3…
I’m down with having closed loop. I’m not a fan of exaggerating the problems with steppers to that degree. They claim it’s quieter but their sample clips of their own motor system seems pretty darn loud to me. Maybe that’s just super bad bearings but it doesn’t give a good impression or feel for their system.
@NathanielStenzel What’s the 2nd one? uStepper?
We’ve been experimenting w usteppers… I don’t really think smaller printers need them but the demo is compelling when we rip the x of y axis around during a print… it just returns and continues. Pretty wild.
@Thomas_Balu_Walter The other crowdfund campaign running right now (that I know about) is Tarocco. Tarocco looks more promising to me.
Tarocco was the other one that I was thinking of. I did not know of usteppers. I guess the kickstarter for that one is done?
uStepper was crowdfunded September 2015. Another one since then was Mechaduino which was inspired by ustepper but supposedly had better motor dynamics.
Ah. There were a number of projects for closed loop systems of various sorts then. I am most interested in the closed loop DC motor projects, but that is because of screw drive and geared down system potential.
I find the idea of a missed step and recovery sort of confusing, to me if a print misses a step it is because of a very bad mechanical situation that needs to be fixed before any more printing continues. I cannot imagine a situation I would want missed steps to be recovered from and the machine continue, the only situations I can imagine missed steps the machine needs to stop.
I would be interested in closed loop for that. Sense, stop, record g-code position and have ability to rewind a few mm of pathing. Allowing the print to be cleaned up and continue, but only after the operator has assessed why it skipped.
Ignoring skipping, thinking software can make up for that amount of machine physical problem, seems just wrong. A path to a machine becoming possibly unfixable, from a cascade of issues masked by software until a threshold of ‘effedupness’ is reached that requires far more parts and disassembly and down time than fixing the original issue that caused the first skip.
To me it’s interesting for bigger machines - if at all. CNC routers that might skip because you are trying to move too fast through hard materials. But then I’d want some feedback to see that my settings are wrong instead of the machine trying to fix the problem on its own.
As many has already said, I’m not really interested of closed loop steppers. My printer hasn’t skipped a step ever during a print.
I’m more interested to see DC servomotors become more popular on printers.
@Topias_Korpi Just in case you don’t know, this is DC servomotor packaged to replace a stepper. The Torocco project is DC servomotor too.
@Jeff_DeMaagd Oh, I thought it was a stepper with an encoder… My bad!
Then this is exactly what I’ve been waiting!
In fairness, they don’t make it very clear what’s inside except in the gallery.
@Jeff_DeMaagd Yep. I watched the video and took a quick look into the description and still thought it was encoded stepper. However it’s nice that someone is developing these things 
Interesting that it’s a DC motor, to be honest the page seems sensationalist and the words used make it seem very poorly thought through, that is the translation I guess. All the ‘bestest most awesome ever!’ type language, makes me think it’s not honest. To hear that it’s a DC motor, i get the impression someone clever made the product but had someone not clever and more manipulative and dishonest made the marketing. They should be clear and precise in the language used and not over exaggerate, they expect knowledgeable users that upgrade machines to buy then they need to speak those users language.
Seems interesting, but stepper motors are only like $10 from alibaba, or $20 from a better source so it seems unnecessary.