Servo Drives and Programming Software
I recently came across an interesting discussion at
eng-tips.com on the topic of what is the best
experience-based and easy-to-use servo-drive-programming
software package.
Let me summarize this discussion:
The original questioner had experience with PacSci’s
800Tools for a PC833 drive. He (and his company) hated it!
Perhaps the drive is too basic to easily do what his company
wanted it to do. They used the drive in “Predefined Move”
mode which meant selecting each movement digitally (via PLC)
and then timing a “Start Move” pulse to initiate the
movements. There were only 8 programmable moves available.
The user/company didn’t care for this.
The same user also used Applied Motion Products Si
Programmer V1.82. Which he reports is a much nicer unit:
“Easy to program, easy to understand, very intuitive. There
were many more moves available for programming and 4 digital
inputs available among other nice features.” He reports
there is such a vast difference (between the PacSci’s
800Tools and Applied Motion Products Si Programmer V1.82),
and wonder if he’s comparing apples to apples?
—
Another user reported he especially liked the Emerson Motion
products line of servo controllers. He managed to control a
complete diverter using one (including logic control).
—
The Sales & Applications Engineer from aerotech.com (manuf.
of motion-control products) recommends their own products.
He also says that Emerson Control Techniques is really easy
to use. GE Fanuc’s Cimplicity Motion Developer for the S2K
series is also nice. Tol-o-Matics is easy. IDC’s is easy to
use. He’s sure some the the Compumotor fans out there like
aerotech’s.
Ultimately, he doesn’t think there really is a right answer
to the question. It depends on the specific application and
the company’s (engineer’s) preferences.
—
Someone else notes the smartmotor from Animatics
www.animatics.com is fairly easy and straightforward to use.
The lanquage is nice and and I/O is easy to use. Several
motors can network easily, the form multi-axis control and
the like.
Micromo, this tech says, is terrible. The interpreted and
compiled code behaves differently in several undocumented ways.
—
Another engineer reports that he especially likes the CTC
Motion Controller and programming package (Quickstep).
“Very easy to program and extremely robust”.
This person says Compumotor has a nice programming package
as well (Motion Planner) with a VB environment built in for
setting up a really slick operator interface, but the drives
themselves seemed tempermental and touchy while you are
programming. Once you get everything set up and stable they
are solid, but it is a pain up to that point.
—
Another tech says that he does not do a lot of embedded
software development; rather, he is into mostly mechanical
designs. Thus given his requirements, he found the Animatics
Smart Motor system fairly easy to pick up. The all-in-one
system makes everything pretty simple. On the other hand,
he wishes it could handle some floating-point calcs.
—
Some servo systems are very well-tailored to following-type
applications and some are well-tailored to controlling
several axes. So it all depends on the servo application.
“When I do not need to change paramaters in a rotary type
axis I am apt to use the Emerson control techniques for the
ease of use and simplicity” reports another engineer. He
adds, “When I need to control several linear axis but do not
need to change paramaters such as velocity or torque, I
prefer to use yamaha servo drives for their ease of use. I
have used the Lexium series of servo drives from shneider
electric for an apllication that required the operator to
input data such as velocity and number of turns. The drives
were interfaced to a Modicon Momentum plc over modbus plus”.