Integrated motor and drive includes motion controls

July 13, 2006
Many companies offer motors with built-in drive electronics.

The MDrive42AC from Intelligent Motion Systems Inc. combines motor-drive and intelligent motioncontrol and feedback electronics into a NEMA-42 high-torque brushless motor.


But a new series of motors from Intelligent Motion Systems, Marlborough, Conn., ups the ante by adding a complete motion controller.

The MDrive42AC Plus consists of a NEMA-42 hightorque brushless motor with fully integrated drive and control electronics. The company says the control delivers high-positioning accuracy, stability at low speeds, no dithering at zero speed, high starting torque, and includes built-in regeneration circuitry. In addition, the control circuit needs no tuning yet permits greater inertia mismatch.

The system accepts a broad input-voltage range from 95 to 264 Vac, rather than the typical dc power used by other systems. Oversized input capacitors minimize powerline surges and brownout problems that accompany long runs and multiple drive systems. The extended operating temperature range of 40 to 85°C should provide long life in demanding environments. Where there's a chance of exposure to chemicals, dust, and liquids, the motor is available in an IP65-rated sealed version.

The microstepping driver offers resolutions from 200 to 51,200 steps/rev. A series of special resolutions include degrees (36,000 steps/rev or 0.01°/ step), arc minutes (21,600 steps/rev or 1 arc min/ step), and metric (25,400 steps/rev or 0.001 mm/ step.) The system accepts step velocities up to 5,000,000 steps/sec.

But where the MDrive42AC shines is in its internal motioncontrol system and programming software. The controller has 6,384 bytes of Flash memory with four 32-bit user registers and supports up to 192 user program labels and variables. Generalpurpose I/O functions within the software include home, plus and minus limits, go, stop, pause, plus and minus jog, moving fault, stall, velocity change, analog input, and general-purpose functions. These are matched to the eight general-purpose I/O lines that handle 5 to 24 Vdc and can sink or source up to 600 mA/channel. The unit's single analog input works from 0 to 5 or 0 to 10 Vdc, or from 4 to 20 mA, at 10-bit resolution.

Communication with the control electronics in the motor is handled via RS-422/485 in either point-to-point or multipleunit configurations. The motor boasts 62 software addresses for multidrop communications. An optional CANopen protocol includes CAN bus 2.0B (11 or 29 bits) at standard frequencies from 10 kHz to 1 MHz.

MAKE CONTACT
Intelligent Motion Systems Inc., (860) 295-6102,
novantaims.com

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