New features of Technosoft Intelligent Drives and Motors

Setup data

• Setup data read at power-on from the EEPROM - using EasySetUp or EasyMotion Studio you can save all the setup data in the drive/motor EEPROM. At power on, this information is verified and then copied into the active RAM memory. This simplifies the Technosoft Motion Language (TML) programs, which can start directly with the motion commands.
• Setup data changes at runtime can also be saved in the EEPROM - during runtime you can test other values for some setup parameters. Using instruction SAVE, you can store your changes in the EEPROM to make them permanent.
• Complete setup data recovery - using EasySetUp or EasyMotion Studio you can upload the setup data stored in a drive/motor EEPROM and get a complete recovery of all the setup data.

Motor control

• Position and speed control with 100 ms update rate - for very high dynamic applications a new control strategy has been added. This performs the position and speed control with an update rate of 100 ms, and does linear interpolation between the reference points provided by the reference generator at each 1ms.
• Motion complete inside a settle band - the motion complete condition is set when commanded position is reached and the position error remains inside a programmable settle band for a specified stabilize time
• Filter on the current command - a low pass filter has been added at the input of the current controller to improve the overall control stiffness
• Offset on the current command - a programmable offset can be added to current command input to compensate for vertical loads
• Filter on the Hall sensors - when controlling brushless DC motors, the Hall sensors feedback is passed through a validation filter which eliminates the risk of false readings due to high frequency noise
• Programmable stand-by current in stepper control - in open-loop control of steppers, in stand-by when motion is complete, the motor current can be reduced to a fraction of the normal operation current.

New motion modes

• S-curve position profiles - drive/motor performs position control following a profile defined by speed, acceleration and jerk limits
• PVT interpolation - position, velocity and time points sent by a host. Drive/motor performs position control with 3rd order interpolation between points. Messages are automatically issued to the host when the reception buffer is full or low
• PT interpolation - position and time points sent by a host. Drive/motor sends performs position control with linear interpolation between points. Messages are automatically issued to the host when the reception buffer is full or low
• Multi-axes synchronization - time synchronization between drives/motors connected via CANbus. Any drive/motor can be set as master for synchronization. The process is completely transparent for a host. Combined with PVT or PT modes, multi-axis synchronization offers a simple and precise solution for multi-axis coordinated moves.
• Superposed moves - a 2nd motion mode like for example a position profile or electronic cam can be superposed over the electronic gearing slave mode, allowing to perform on-the-fly adjustments
• Homing modes - EasyMotion Studio provides a collection of 32 homing modes to select from, and if needed to customize. Once a homing procedure is launched, a host just waits for the confirmation message. If needed, a homing procedure can be aborted at any time during its execution.

Features added to existing motion modes

• Additive mode for relative position profiles - when the additive mode is activated and a new relative position command is issued during motion, the position to reach is computed by adding the new command to the previous position to reach. In the standard mode for relative position profiles, the new command is added to the current position.
• Separate limits and dead-band for external analogue mode - in the external mode with position, speed or torque reference read from an analogue input, the upper and lower limits can have different values and a dead band interval may be specified. When the analogue input voltage is inside the dead-band interval, the reference is kept constant, equal with the value corresponding to the dead-band interval mid-point.
• External digital mode - in the external digital mode, the reference is provided as pulse & direction or quadrature A,B encoder signals. The reference is followed with a programmable ratio, with the drive/motor set in electronic gearing mode
• Electronic gearing coupling with acceleration limitation - at gear slave coupling, a maximum acceleration limit may be imposed. The status register bit InGear signals when the slave is coupled
• Acceleration and speed limits for external modes - when the external reference is read from an analogue input or is provided via a communication channel, a maximum acceleration limit may be imposed for speed control and a maximum speed limit for position control
• Electronic cam absolute or relative with input and output scaling - the absolute cam mode has been added. In both absolute and relative cam modes, the cam input and output may be adjusted being multiplied with a scaling factor.
• Electronic cam coupling with speed limitation - at cam coupling, in absolute cam mode, a maximum speed limit may be imposed. The status register bit InCam signals when the slave is coupled
• Electronic gearing and camming with pulse & direction master signals - the master position may also be provided as pulse & direction signals. This complements the previous options: encoder A, B signals and via communication

Communication

• Automatic transmission of changes in status and error registers - via bit masks you can select the bits from these registers which can trigger on change the automatic transmission of the corresponding register to your host. For example by activating this feature for the motion complete bit from status register, the host will get a confirmation message when a commanded position has been reached
• New instruction for sending data to a host - when this instruction is encountered in a TML program, it sends to your host the TML data (variable) specified in the command. This feature offers you the possibility to check the execution of a TML program and get confirmation messages when specific functions or milestones have been reached
• Axis ID stored in the EEPROM - during drive/motor setup, you can impose an axis ID or leave the drive to read the axis ID from the dedicated switches/jumpers (when available). In the first case, the axis ID is automatically saved in the drive/motor EEPROM and set at power-on
• Data requests can be broadcast - a new set of TML commands allow to broadcast a data request to all the drives/motors connected via CAN-bus, instead of asking them one by one. The answers will arrive in the ascending order of the drives/motors ID
• Axis 0 - all drives/motors respond to messages sent via RS-232 to axis 0, independently of their axis ID
• Group 0 - all drives/motors respond to messages sent for group 0, independently of their group ID
• Network scan - a host can quickly identify all the drives/motors connected to a network, by broadcasting a new identification command. All the drives/motors present will return their axis ID.

Drive/motor status

• Key information grouped in 3 registers - in order to simplify monitoring all the drive/motor essential information is grouped in two 16-bit status registers and one 16-bit error register
• Fault reset command for error recovery - after an error, the drive enters in fault status. Once the error condition is removed, normal operation can be resumed following a fault reset command
• Position triggers - motion progress can be monitored using 4 programmable position triggers. Each position trigger controls a status register bit which is set to 1 when the actual motor position bypasses the position trigger. You can set the drive/motor to send a message to the host whenever the position trigger bits from status register are changing.

I/O

1. Programmable active levels for Enable and limit switch inputs - allows you to set the active level according with your application needs
2. Quick stop when a limit switch input is triggered - when a limit switch input goes to the active level and the motion is in the wrong direction, the drive/motor performs a quick stop with a programmable deceleration rate
3. Motor and master position capture - Both motor and master position can be precisely captured on 1st and 2nd encoder index and on limit switch inputs transitions. For steppers controlled open loop, instead of the motor position, the actual position reference is captured

New TML instructions

• Division - you can divide a 32-bit long or fixed value with a 16-bit integer, the result being a fixed value with 16-bits for the integer part and 16-bits for the fractional part
• Programmable timeout for wait loops - when waiting for an event to occur like for example an input change, you can set a timeout limit for the wait
• Possibility to abort a function call - by calling a TML function using CALLS command, you have the possibility to abort the function at any time during its execution and to return to the calling point. This feature is particularly useful for situations where the function normal exit is conditioned by an event that sometimes may not occur
• TML interrupt triggered by a timer - you can set a TML interrupt to be executed at a programmable time interval. This offers the possibility to execute periodically a sequence of TML commands.