Motion-control card offers ultra-fast servo loop rate

By Control Engineering Staff November 16, 2005

On-the-fly changes and PLC-style external signal I/O breakpoints can be used to create application-specific profile changes with PMD’s Magellan-PCI card.

Newly announced Magellan-PCI Motion Controller from Performance Motion Devices Inc. (PMD) features a faster servo loop rate of 50upgraded servo-loop rate raises performance for high-speed, point-to-point moves, advanced contouring, and other applications. Besides servo loop rate of 50 µs per axis, Magellan-PCI provides 5 Mcount/s quadrature encoder input rate, and pulse-and-direction output of up to 5 Mpulses/s. Other features include trajectory generation, servo-loop closure, quadrature signal input, motor output signal generation, servo trace, electronic commutation, and ability to make on-the-fly changes. Communication choices include PCI bus, serial port, or CANbus.

“The issue in motion control right now is performance and cost. Just a few years ago a sub-100 microsecond loop time was the realm of exotic, high-end products. Today it’s common. Users expect more performance at a lower cost, and, thanks to high speed DSPs, they’re getting it,” says Chuck Lewin, president and CEO of PMD.

With PMD’s Magellan Motion Processor, the new PCI card allows designers to create cost-effective, high-performance motion systems using standard C or C++ programming. Magellan-PCI card accepts input parameters, such as position, velocity, acceleration, deceleration and jerk, and automatically generates the programmed trajectory.

Pricing for North American distribution of Magellan-PCI starts at $638 in OEM quantities.

Frank J. Bartos, executive editor, Control Engineering, fbartos@reedbusiness.com