My interest is less about G-Code running motors in a typical cartesian space, and more about just running arbitrary motors in the process automation machines I’m building. However there’s so much overlap with CNCs and 3d printers that I’ve been researching those as well. My approach has been to use ubiquitous NEMA17 and NEMA23 steppers, but I’m open to using regular DC motors along with closed loop control as well.
I’ve built a few Mechaduinos, studied their schematics, hacked on their firmware, and am now pretty familiar with what they can do and what their limitations are. The summary of my experience is that they are really freaking cool as a learning toy, and still somewhat disappointing for most real applications (although this could change as the firmware improves).
Also here’s an article on microstepping that I found interesting this morning.
I’m at the space pretty frequently (and am a keyholder) so would gladly meet with everyone in this thread. It sounds like we are all coming at this from different angles, but that our goals overlap.