I'm starting a new project making a small SCARA type pick and place arm that I found on ThingiverseHERE and while I have most of the parts laying around I have some questions before I get started putting things together.
My other projects have used steppers in conjunction with Hall sensors to control the in and out movements of the motors to keep everything timed. I have been looking at integrated steppers that come with drivers and encoders to make things more compact and keep the wiring of all the devices to look like less of a rats nest.
The question I have is homing all the steppers and the movement limitations that the arm will have, will the encoders remember where they are after a power down or will I still need to add limit switches so it will have to be homed every time I power up and down? Will the encoder know when it hits the movement limits of each arm, I'm guessing when I figure how many steps each motor can make before it hits its movement limit can be coded in and the encoder will remember after initial homing?
I'm just trying to iron out some basic questions before getting started which I'm sure will lead to a bunch more since it's my first time with this type of project.
Thanks for any help.