Difference between open loop and closed loop mode when finding the index on a stepper motor axis.

Question

I have a test system which uses a PXI-7352 motion controller with a MID-7602 stepper motor drive to position a 200 step/revolution stepper motor with an attached 1000 line encoder.  The MID-7602 is configured for 64 microsteps per step, giving 12,800 microsteps and 4000 encoder counts per revolution.  The system is controlled using LabView 7.1 and NI-Motion 6.13.  To home the motor, I've defined a sequence in MAX which first finds the reverse limit switch and then moves forward to the encoder index pulse.
When finding its reference in open loop mode, the system its reference at the same microstep each time.  When findings its reference in closed loop mode, the system finds its reference somewhere within about a 20 microstep wide range.
I hope somebody out there with more experience with this controller can describe the difference between finding the encoder index in open loop mode and finding the encoder index in closed loop mode. 
Thanks,
Mark Moss

Answer 1

Hello Mark,
I suspect that the behavior you are experiencing has today
with the resolution difference between your encoder and your
microstepping.  Let me illustrate with an
example:
Example Setup
Stepper
Motor
NI
Motion Controller
10
steps per encoder pulse (Every 10 steps the controller gets an encoder
pulse, therefore positions 0-9 all appear to be 0 to the controller)
The
system has a maximum of 3 pull in moves set
Open Loop Scenario
The
system is commanded to go to position 9.
The
controller sends out 9 pulses.
The
motor moves to position 9.
Closed Loop Scenario
The
system is commanded to go to position 9.
The
controller sends out 9 pulses.
The
motor moves to position 9.
The
controller checks its position and sees that it is still at position 0
because it has not received an encoder pulse.
Because
the controller thinks it is still at position 0, it sends another 9 pulses
as its first pull in move.
The
motor moves to position 18.
The
controller checks its position and sees that it is at position 10 because
it has only received one encoder pulse.
Because
the controller thinks it is still at position 10, it sends1 reverse pulse
as its second pull in move.
The
motor moves to position 17.
The
controller checks its position and sees that it is at position 10 because
it has only received one encoder pulse.
Because
the controller thinks it is still at position 10, it sends and additional
single reverse pulse as its third pull in move.
The
motor moves to its final position of 16.
I believe something similar is happening with your
application as it looks for the index pulse. 
Because the controller does not compensate for what it perceives as
position error in open loop mode, the motor always goes to the same commanded
position.  In closed loop mode, the motor
is bouncing around inside the single index encoder pulse trying to find a
certain position.
There are several recommendations I can make towards
correcting this behavior.  These
recommendations are in order of effectiveness:
Setup
your system so that there are more encoder counts per revolution than
steps per revolution.
Turn
off pull-in moves by setting them to 0 in MAX.
Use an
open loop configuration.
Play
around with the pull in window in MAX.
Regards,
Luke H