01. Which are the main features of the IPS110?
02. Which are the main benefits offered by the IPS110?
03. What types of motors can be driven by the IPS110?
04. Which are the voltage and the currents of the IPS110?
05. Which are the maximum ratings of the IPS110?
06. Which is the temperature range?
07. Which is the size of the IPS110?
08. What types of control modes are possible?
09. What kind of internal motion reference generator can be used?
10. If I need a special control function, can the IPS110 be adapted upon request?
11. What type of feedback can be used?
12. Which is the maximum input frequency of the encoder?
13. What kinds of I/Os are available?
14. Are opto-isolated inputs / outputs available?
15. Are there any schematics available for the I/Os?
16. Is it possible to implement PLC functionality on the drive?
17. Is the board programmable? How can I program the board?
18. What types of commands are possible using the TML language?
19. What kind of software is needed to program the board? Can I control the IPS110 with my own commands, or do I need to use the Motion Studio?
20. Are there any tools to help me control Technosoft drives from a PC computer?
21. What type of communication is available?
22. What communication protocol is used on the CAN-bus?
23. How can I interface your CAN network with my specific field bus network?
24. Is stand-alone operation possible?
25. Can I drive the IPS110 with an analogue signal?
26. Does the IPS110 have a pulse and direction input? Which is the maximum input frequency?
27. How can I parameterize the board?
28. How can I test / diagnose the system?
29. How can I control several boards?
30. Can the board be driven by a PLC? Or by another processor?
31. What type of protections are integrated into the board? With which settings?
32. Is it possible to know the temperature of the IPS110?
33. Where can I find additional application information?
34. Where can I find product literature?
35. How can I evaluate the drive?
36. Where can I buy a starter kit or a board, and the related software?
37. Do you have any distributors in my country?
38. Is the IPS110 available from stock?
39. Where can I get assistance if needed?
40. Do you provide application development assistance?
41. Do you provide training about your products and/or on Motion Control in general?
42. Does Technosoft sell any motor to be used with the IPS110?
43. In case I have different motors to drive of different technology and power, which solutions does Technosoft propose?

01. Which are the main features of the IPS110?

02. Which are the main benefits offered by the IPS110?

The IPS110 represents a state-of-the-art intelligent drive offering, at a very attractive price, features usually found only in high-power servo amplifiers.
It brings flexibility (on-the-fly configuration change), high performance (fully digital control implementation), advanced motion control (powerful reference generator module), embedded intelligence (high-level motion language programmable) and advanced programming and analysis tools (the EasyMotion Studio platform). The result is a significant leverage on the road from concept to the implementation of a complete industrial motion control application.

03. What types of motors can be driven by the IPS110?

The IPS110 can drive step motors with or without encoder, in closed or open loop. Sin-cos encoders can also be used as position sensors (optional).

04. Which are the voltage and the currents of the IPS110?

Motor supply 12-45V; Logic supply 5V; 500 mA continuous output current

05. Which are the maximum ratings of the IPS110?

The IPS110 can be operated up to the following maximum ratings:
Supply voltage: 48 V_DC.
Supply current: 2 A.
Output current, continuous, per motor phase: 500 mA; peak current 1A / 1s

06. Which is the temperature range?

The IPS110 can operate in an industrial environment with an ambient temperature between 0°C and 50°C.

07. Which is the size of the IPS110?

The IPS110 is an open-frame board with a miniaturized size, in a DIP24 format of: 50mm x 26mm x 11.5 mm (Length x Width x Height).

08. What types of control modes are possible?

The IPS110 can be configured to operate in one of position or speed control modes, which can be freely changed during the operation of the drive, based on application requirements. If no position sensor is mounted on the motor shaft, the motor is driven in open loop mode, and can be driven as standard step motor, in micro-step or full step operating mode. If an encoder is mounted at motor shaft, the motor can be driven in closed loop mode, thus one can also use the stepless operating mode. In this case, the motor is driven using a vector control method (as a synchronous motor).

09. What kind of internal motion reference generator can be used?

Depending on the active control mode, several motion references can be selected: profiles (with trapezoidal speed), contouring (with linear interpolation), external (from an analog input, pulse & direction, or on-line - through a communication channel) or test (saturated ramp). For multiple-axis configurations, electronic gearing is also possible.
Note that one can change the reference type "on-the-fly", without needing to wait for the currently executed motion to be completed, usually based on the occurrence of an internal or external event.

10. If I need a special control function, can the IPS110 be adapted upon request?

If a specific control function is needed, which is not implemented on the standard IPS110, Technosoft can adapt the existing functionality of the drive on request.

11. What type of feedback can be used?

There are several types of feedback devices that can be used with the IPS110.
Firstly, standard incremental encoders can be used. Also, sin-cos encoders can be used (optionally).
As already mentioned, no feedback sensor is needed if the motor position or speed is to be controlled in open loop mode.

12. Which is the maximum input frequency of the encoder?

The incremental encoder pulses can go up to 5 MHz. Note that internal quadrature encoder circuit (QEP) multiplies by 4 the number of pulses, thus increasing by 2 bits the equivalent encoder measurement resolution.

13. What kinds of I/Os are available?

Several digital inputs and digital outputs are available. First, there are two general purpose I/Os, which can be used as digital inputs (0 to 5 V), analog inputs (0 to 3.3 V) or digital outputs (0 to 3.3 V). The board also has two separate differential inputs, dedicated to the pulse & direction purpose functionality.
As a special remark, if the encoder sensor is not used, the associated input signals can be used as general-purpose digital inputs, too.

14. Are opto-isolated inputs / outputs available?

The IPS110 drive does not have any isolated inputs or outputs.

15. Are there any schematics available for the I/Os?

The IPS110 User Manual contains the complete connection scheme of the I/O interfaces, together with the electrical specifications (logic, voltage and current limit), thus providing all the information needed to connect external equipment to the drive.

16. Is it possible to implement PLC functionality on the drive?

The TML environment offers you the possibility to combine motion control commands with PLC-specific operations, mainly related to handling of I/Os, events occurring, arithmetic operations, interrupts, functions and decision features.
This gives you a lot of flexibility, through the embedded intelligence at drive level, covering most cases where an additional PLC controller might be needed.

17. Is the board programmable? How can I program the board?

The IPS110 is programmable using the Technosoft Motion Language (TML). The drive can execute binary TML code, stored in the local E2ROM memory (stand-alone mode), or sent on-line via the serial communication line from a PC or an external host.
The TML instruction set is a high-level, motion-oriented language, allowing you to set up, parameterize and implement advanced motion commands in a very straightforward manner.

18. What types of commands are possible using the TML language?

The TML instruction set contains more than 90 instructions, grouped as: assignment, arithmetic, decision, reference mode setting, I/O treatment, event, configuration, command, communication, and multiple-axis categories.

19. What kind of software is needed to program the board? Can I control the IPS110 with my own commands, or do I need to use the EasyMotion Studio?

EasyMotion Studio is an advanced development platform for Technosoft intelligent drives. Including automatic TML code generation tools, it allows you to program the IPS110 without even writing TML code. During system testing, the simplest way is to use EasyMotion Studio, which can directly generate the TML code (automatic code generation), and then download and execute the code onto the drive.
This does not exclude the possibility of sending to the drive binary TML commands from another external host, in order to setup / modify drive parameters, or to get status information about the drive operation.

20. Are there any tools to help me control Technosoft drives from a PC computer?

Yes, you can use the TML_LIB library for this purpose. TML_LIB library is a collection of functions allowing you to implement motion control applications on a PC computer, in order to drive Technosoft intelligent drives based on the MotionChipTM technology.

Implemented as a .dll file, the library can be included in a user-defined Windows application developed in C/C++, Basic, Delphi or LabVIEW, and will allow you to communicate with a drive, set up its parameters, interrogate about its status, send motion commands, define motion events, test input and set output ports status, etc.

21. What type of communication is available?

The drive can communicate on a serial interface of RS-232 type. Communication speeds of up to 115 kilo-bauds are possible.

22. What communication protocol is used on the CAN-bus?

The communication protocol used on the CAN-bus is adapted to the Technosoft TML instruction set, and is based on the CAN 2.0B protocol (29 bits standard). A CANopen communication protocol implementation is currently under development.

23. How can I interface your CAN network with my specific field bus network?

Technosoft offers the CMC207 Can Master Controller card. This dual processor card can be programmed, upon request, to be used as a gateway between a local Technosoft CAN network, and external field bus networks as CANopen or DeviceNet.

24. Is stand-alone operation possible?

An important advantage of the IPS110 is the possibility of combining the stand-alone operating mode (executing local program) with the on-line / slave operating mode (executing on-line commands).
The stand-alone operating mode is possible due to the local E2ROM memory, which can be loaded with a local TML program executed by the drive if configured in the "Autorun" mode. At power-on, the drive will immediately start the execution of the local application.

25. Can I drive the IPS110 with an analog signal?

The IPS110 drive has 2 analog inputs, in the range of [0…+3.3] V. Depending on the structure of your application, you can use them as reference input, feedback signal, or load torque limit or feedforward signals.

26. Does the IPS110 have a pulse and direction input? Which is the maximum input frequency?

One of the operating modes of the IPS110 is the Pulse and Direction. In this case, the motion reference (position or speed, as configured by the user) is imposed via pulses applied to the Pulse input pin of the drive. The pulses are used to increase or decrease the reference value, in correlation with the status of the Direction pin (0 or 1).
Both inputs are differential. The maximum frequency of the Pulse signal is 5 MHz.

27. How can I parameterize the board?

The most effective way of parameterizing the IPS110 drive is via the EasyMotion Studio environment. Based on predefined templates of the program, you only need to add some basic parameters of the motor/load, or use the parameter identification functionality of the program. Then advanced tuning features will help you to set up and test the controller parameters.
Once the system is parameterized, you will only focus on motion definition.

28. How can I test / diagnose the system?

EasyMotion Studio offers you the possibility of testing, in a logical sequence, the functionality of all the basic components of the motion system. This goes from correct phase connections, integrity of sensor signals, detection of sensor parameters and motor/load electrical and mechanical parameter identification, up to automatic tuning and testing of control loop performances.

29. How can I control several boards?

For multiple-axis configurations (implemented using the CAN communication channel), you can send TML commands from a master axis to slave axes, including electronic gearing information. Also, from a PC connected to the network, EasyMotion Studio offers the possibility of setting up, controlling and examining any of the axes active at that moment.

30. Can the board be driven by a PLC? Or by another processor?

You can use two means of driving the IPS110 from an external PLC or host processor. On the one hand, you can do it by sending TML commands (including downloading of a TML program) through the serial communication channel (RS-232 or CAN). On the other hand, you can use external I/O signals to select / activate specific TML functions previously stored on the IPS drive.

31. What type of protections are integrated into the board? With which settings?

There are several protections that can be activated on the IPS110 drive. They include: limit current, under- and over-voltage, and I²t protections. The parameterization of the protections is easily accomplished at high level, in engineering units, from the EasyMotion Studio platform.

32. Is it possible to know the temperature of the IPS110?

The IPS110 does not have an internal temperature measurement circuit.

33. Where can I find additional application information?

Complete drive information can be found in the User Manual of the drive. Additional information, including application examples, application notes, complete project files for specific cases, executable in EasyMotion Studio, together with specific technical FAQ lists, can be found on the product CD-ROM and on the Technosoft website, www.technosoftmotion.com.
Consulting the "User Information Page" for the intelligent drives you have bought will help you to find the latest updates and information related to them.

34. Where can I find product literature?

Complete product literature is included in the product CD-ROM you received when you bought the product. The most recent updates can be downloaded from our website, www.technosoftmotion.com.
Registering in our web database will allow Technosoft to keep you informed about the latest product updates, and send you news regarding product releases.

35. How can I evaluate the drive?

The best way of evaluating the drive is to order the IPS110SK starter kit, a ready-to-run, complete package containing the drive, the EasyMotion Studio software, a step motor and an I/O extension board, as well as full documentation and application notes.

36. Where can I buy a starter kit or board, and the related software?

You can order the drive, starter kit and associated software directly from one of Technosoft's sales offices, or from one of our distributors in your area. Please consult our sales addresses for more precise information.

37. Do you have any distributors in my country?

Technosoft's distribution network is continuously increasing, covering most of the regions worldwide. Please consult our sales address directory for a most recent update of this information.

38. Is the IPS110 available from stock?

Up to 5 samples can be ordered from stock, for IPS110. For larger quantities, please consult our sales offices.

39. Where can I get assistance if I need it?

Our technical support specialists are ready to help you to use our drives. Get assistance via e-mail, by contacting our hotline at support@technosoftmotion.com. We'll be glad to provide further details, examples, or to answer your specific questions related to the configuration and programming of our drives.

40. Do you provide application development assistance?

A dependable team of experienced Technosoft specialists is available and, on request, can help you to implement your specific application. Going from support in system configuration and setup to the development of a complete motion application, we can do it or help you to do it on a case-by-case basis.

41. Do you provide training on your products and/or on Motion Control in general?

Upon request, Technosoft provides training in the field of digital motion control (DMC). Based on many years of experience in this domain, we can organize workshops and seminars in the DMC field.
Ranging from generic DMC design, to specific Technosoft intelligent drives workshops, we bring you the essential information needed to start working in this challenging activity domain.

42. Does Technosoft sell any motor to be used with the IPS110?

Technosoft has only a limited type of motors in stock for test purposes, but we can also recommend, through our network, an adequate motor for your application.

43. In case I have different motors to drive, of different technology and power, which solutions does Technosoft propose?

Technosoft provides a large variety of products that cover different power levels. The family of Technosoft intelligent power drives range from 100W to 640W, for brushless or step motors, with encoder, Hall or resolver transducers.
Based on your application specific requirements, Technosoft will assist you to select the most appropriate solution.