Higher Step-Count motors?

(First post on the forum!)

So I was looking around to see what a cheap 3D printer here would be, and the Wallace seemed like a good place to start, as I like the design, and it looks easily expandable. I have never built a 3D printer before, so this may not be a good question, but anyway...

The stepper motors that the wiki says to use for the Wallace are these, which have 200 steps per revolution. I was thinking that if it had more steps, it could be higher resolution, so I looked around a bit more and found this, which had 400, and even better torque for only $2 more. Would I be able to use these motors instead of the 200-step ones recommended, or are the electronics for these different motors drastically different?

EDIT:
Found some more specific specs. Turns out that the motor I found has NEMA17 size, and not NEMA14. To me, this doesn't really matter. Here are more specs.

Step Angle (degrees) : 0.9
2-Phase
Rated Voltage: 3V
Rated Current: 1.7A/Phase
5mm Diameter Drive Shaft
Holding Torque: 48N.cm
NEMA 17 form factor

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2015 12:19PM by Lazerlord.

I'm using a prusa i3 type printer and found that 200 steps x16 microsteps is plenty resolution. You'll be hard pressed to see the difference, and you need to calibrate the printer very well to see the steps in xy pane. This comes down to 80 steps per mm, which is 0.0125mm accuracy. With 400 steps per rev you'll get 0.00625mm acuracy. But it's an easy drop in upgrade that you'll probably only see on the shiney most of filaments like pla and nylon.

Alright. I guess it will be easier to use the standard 200 step motors, as I won't have to fiddle with software or electronics all that much.

Quote
Lazerlord
I won't have to fiddle with software or electronics all that much

Electronics and firmware-setup are a main part of 3D- printers. The forum is full of electronic and software related questions and problems.
If that´s not your kind of "fun", you better build kites or something...
-Olaf

I have printers with both .09 degree (400 step) and 1.8 degree (200 step) motors. I can't see any difference.

Alright then. Thanks for your response!

On this page: [miscsolutions.wordpress.com] David changed from 1.8 to 0.9 degree steppers and made a comparison, if you look at the pictures you can clearly see a difference, a small one but it's there.
So if there's not much difference in price between 1.8 and 0.9 steppers I would get the latter if I was building from scratch.
Is it worth to "upgrade" due to the difference, probably not.

IMO 0.9deg motors are worth it for a new build delta printer because of the improved Z axis resolution they give. But on a Cartesian or CoreXY printer, standard 1.8deg motors provide more than enough resolution.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Don´t forget that max. speed with 400 steps is 50% lower than with 200 steps. Especially important in combination with DRV8825 drivers and 8bit controllers.
-Olaf

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2015 03:47AM by o_lampe.