Position drive adds Ethernet port

By Staff -- Control Engineering, 10/1/2006

AC Technology’s Model 940 PositionDrive now includes a 10/100 mbps Ethernet port to allow connection to any Ethernet network and the use of standard network equipment.

Model 940 PositionDrive from AC Technology, a member of the Lenze Group, now includes a 10/100 mbps Ethernet port. The IEEE 802.3 hardware-compliant feature allows the unit to be connected to any Ethernet network and use standard network equipment such as switches, hubs, and routers. The digital servo drive is said to be a simple, robust motion controller that can operate ac servos and ac induction motors.

“Various protocols were used to optimize Ethernet and drive performance,” says Dr. Sergey Lototsky, the company’s R&D director, servo and automation, “TCP/IP protocol suite, ONC RPC, DHCP, and ICMP were standard. In addition, NVE (Network Variable Exchange) and ND (Network Discovery) protocols were implemented to improve user functionality. NVE allows data exchange between multiple drives and ND is used to find the drive in the network and retrieve the drive’s IP address by its symbolic name.”

Model 940 uses proprietary software, MotionView, for drive set-up, programming, and diagnostics. MotionView in the Drive (MVD) supports operation with multiple 940 drives simultaneously. The GUI, says Lototsky, is modified and updated dynamically when the user switches from drive to drive to reflect supported features and firmware revisions that may differ from drive to drive.”

No additional software needs to be installed on the customer’s machine. MVD is part of the Model 940 firmware. Firmware upgrades automatically include MVD. Industry-specific Ethernet features planned for Model 940 include connectivity with Modbus over TCP/IP and EtherNet/IP, an ODVA protocol. www.actech.com

AC Technology, a member of the Lenze Group