Product category:
Electromechanical Components
News Release from: Animatics | Subject: G-Code for SmartMotors
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 December 2001
Improved comms and firmware increase
motor uses
Now SmartMotors can be used with CAD/CAM.
Now SmartMotors can be used with CAD/CAM Animatics the producer of the SmartMotor, which is a combined motor controller, amplifier and servo motor, has been under intense pressure from its customer base to make the product do circular interpolation for applications such as milling, turning, laser and water jet cutting, glue dispensers etc
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 7 Sep 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Historically, machine builders could enjoy the benefits of the SmartMotor's extreme integration only in applications with predominantly linear motion.
The hurdles to overcome this were twofold.
The first hurdle was to make a group of two to five SmartMotors operate from an RS232 or RS485 network to perform highly complicated co-ordinated motion.
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The second hurdle was to create a host computer utility that would interpret G-Codes and play a role in co-ordinating the small SmartMotor network.
Enhancements in the firmware of the SmartMotor as well as in the communications accomplished the co-ordination tasks.
The most important part of the package was the G-Code interface to make the capability accessible to the typical user.
This host level utility looks much like a word processor where G-Codes can be loaded from the output of CAD/CAM software, or simply typed in.
The software can be configured to talk with two to five SmartMotors and will automatically address the chain.
Also configurable is the scaling of each axis to account for ball screw pitch and any gear ratios between the SmartMotors and the final linear motion.
Once configured, the user simply presses "play" and the multi-axis system executes the contoured motion flawlessly.
There are even provisions to choose vertex behavior.
For example, it is often desirable when machining that no deceleration exists between command blocks for the best possible finish.
The user can program vertex behavior to exclude deceleration, include it or even include a deceleration that is proportional to the sharpness of the angle.
This proportional behavior is by far the most popular, especially in surfacing where there are thousands of tiny segments used to describe curves.
These segments need to be executed at full speed, but at the end, it is desirable to have a gentle transition for abrupt changes in direction such as lifting the tool for another pass.
Finally, with this technology, people can create fabrication equipment without a cabinet full of controls and without being subjected to down time or expensive service calls.
A spare SmartMotor can eliminate field service and a damaged SmartMotor simply gets put in a box and sent out with the mail.
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