Question BLDC/Odrive vs Servos on a 2-4DOF "SFX100-like" motion system

Dear fellow Sim-Nerds,

I’m very interested in building a 2-4DOF (2DOF at first, TL and Surge later) SFX-100-like motion system for my existing rig.

But there are so many questions

First of all I have no experience with motion systems or robotics and just a rudimentary understanding of python or other programming languages... but I'm willing to learn.

So I ask all of you:
Better do it the old fashion way and use servos/drivers/thanos or build a BLDC/Odrive based rig?

How much more work is it to get the software running?
And will odrives/odesc be as easy to work with and as compatible to all the software out there as a thanos board?

Thank you very much for your help.
Greetings & best regards from Germany,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,
I am using an Odrive 6DOF since some years now - and I love it and once correctly set up its reliable . But comming to this point is a loooong way learning to understand Odrive.
If you only want to build a simulator fast and with low risc, then go with Thanos or similar controllers and those cheap Chinese servo Systems that a lot of people here in the forum use.
Liebe Grüße aus München

Hi soon software will be released which will make the work of setting up the odrive easier.

That sounds interesting.
Can you elaborate?

I can't say anything closer to this I am in contact with the software developer and it seems to be a simple setup .testing will start soon.

I second PeterW's perspective. I took on an Odrive project because I liked the idea of a BLDC driven system and I wanted to learn more about electronics and motion and for me, the idea of taking the road less traveled was enticing. I think it was an excellent platform and choice for me. I have had my rig up and running for several months without any significant issue. I think the biggest challenge for me was getting emc gremlins out of the system. With that said, the approach to solving that issue is well proven, ferrite cores are critical and cable shielding and routing is too. I had some other issues pop up like the system shutting down unexpectedly, but I learned a ton in the process... In that case my brake resistor actual value was a bit off of the ideal value and I needed to measure it and change a setting, so I didn't push current back into the power supply. The issue was easy to diagnose with the Odrive community and I learned a ton in the process.

The Odrive firmware is well documented and if you buy from them then the discord server has been really helpful. Personally, I would be comfortable building another rig with Odrive. I think the question is if I would go with their new Odrive pro design or just stick with the 3.6 which isn't recommended for new designs.

I haven't had as much time as I want to document my system but do still plan on completing that. I'm happy to help where I can based on my experience if you go Odrive.

On the software compatibility side, I have used FlyPT mover up to this point but plan on trying out some other options soon. Most seem to have options to change the output string so they could send info to the Odrive directly. You can also put something like an Arduino in between to translate and provide a compatibility layer.

Bottom line, both are great viable systems. AC servos are pretty plug and play. Odrive will probably teach you more but at this point getting it running is pretty formulaic.

-B