Embedded drive: PC-mounted servo drive upgrades multi-axis designs

Compact Accelnet-Micro drive, built onto user PCBs, simplifies mounting, cabling, and connectors.

By Control Engineering Staff June 26, 2008

Canton, MA Copley Controls’ high power density Accelnet Micro servo drive mounts directly onto OEM circuit boards and delivers 6 A peak at 90 V for brushless and brush-type servo motors. Board mounting simplifies wiring and power distribution, reducing cost. The company says OEMs can minimize expensive panel space and have the flexibility to use the most effective connectoring scheme. It says the drive is particularly attractive for semiconductor and life sciences applications involving multi-axis drive clusters.
It goes on to say that Accelnet drives work in a wide range of system architectures and are compatible with many kinds of feedback devices. Standard Accelnet command interfaces are CANopen DSP-402, DeviceNet, ASCII, discrete I/O, stepper,
Copley says it has developed extensive distributed-control software libraries for fast development of multi-axis systems. Low-level code to control a CANopen network of intelligent drives is eliminated. All network housekeeping is handled automatically by a few simple commands linked into the user’s C++, Visual Basic, or LabView application program.
Used in stand-alone mode, the drive exploits the company’s CVM (Copley Virtual Machine) capability, enabling it to function as a versatile system controller. Simple point-and-click actions define up to 32 motion sequences. Any parameter can be assigned to a register for efficient real-time adjustment, the company says. For complex applications, the company provides custom functions for fill-in-the-blanks simplicity.
edited by C.G. Masi , senior editor, Control Engineering News Desk
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