Hi - not sure if this is the right forum but it's hardware so...
I'm teching out a new project that will use some revolving "shutters" to direct light over a 180 degree arc. I've been fooling around with using a stepper motor since that is what I have at hand but I am also wondering about a servo - haven't worked with those at all.
Wondering which would be faster - a stepper or a servo - to move to a specific position. The load will be minimal/light weight. Or if the speed is roughly the same, might it come down to a. cost or b. control complexity?
It depends on the gearing. But a servo will draw less power when stationary and will self correct if it is moved manually away from position. However you can't control the speed of servos but you can control the speed of a stepping motor.
Well, a servo is certainly easier to interface with, given you run the power to it, and then one pin to your arduino - and then tell the arduino to tell the servo to go to whatever degree you want, and you're done.
However, if you want to slow things down (speeding up is easy - get a faster servo/faster gearing/whatever), the servo is going to present more difficulty.
With a servo, you can slow it down by waiting some time (not an actual delay, but by measuring time) between movements. That is, if you want to move 180 degrees, you can make it take 180 seconds by moving 1 degree and waiting for a second to pass before moving the next degree.
With most applications, this wouldn't be an issue, but consider steppers can give as much resolution as .18 degree/movement, or less. Of course, then you'll need to make sure you actually moved that distance w/ a stepper. (A servo guarantees this movement occurs, as long as you refresh the signal.)