Looping a motion

Lets say I have a filmstrip of approximately 12 photos that I simply crawl across from one side of the screen to the other. Is there any way that this can be looped seemlessly so that the film strip appears to continue endlessly?
Thanks
Jerry

There is no way to loop animations on a single slide.
There are a couple of possible workarounds. If your slide background is horizontally uniform (that is, if it can unnoticeably slide left and right, you could take your photos and place them on multiple slides that use Push transitions to appear as if they move in one continuous line. You can loop this presentation, and it will appear as if the photos crawl past. (The motion won't be completely uniform however -- each slide will stop for a very brief moment.)
Alternatively, you may be able to create a QuickTime movie (e.g., in iMovie) that has the photos and motion you want, then loop that movie in Keynote. I'm less certain as to how to accomplish this, however.

Similar Messages

How to loop a motion menu... seamlessly

First off, thanks for all the great info and help I've gotten off this forum lately. I'm just getting into Encore after being more used to Premiere and Photoshop, so while it seems familiar, there are lots of little questions I keep coming up with. The Lynda.com tutorials are excellent, but not real good at taking questions!
Now my issue:
I am trying to creating a looping motion menu. I have followed the steps on the tutorial, creating my AE composition via Dynamic Link, but they use a different effect than I want, and when it's time to do the looping, I don't have the same options. In the tutorial, they use the 'fractal noise' effect and in the effects controls there is a setting for 'Evolution' and 'Evolution Options' which they use to sync up the loop so it's seamless.
However, I am using the 'Wave Warp' effect, and have created the motion I want, but there are no such controls for this effect. Consequently, when I go back to Encore and place the composition into the menu, there is a visible jump at the end of the loop.
Any ideas on how I can seamlessly loop this motion?
Thanks again
bobby

Jon,
Yes, I see that this is really an AE question. Because I accessed AE via Encore, I had in my head that it was an Encore issue. But now I may be back in the Encore realm:
I used your info to set my effect at a duration of 4 secs and keyframed the first frame to 0x + 00.0°, and the last frame to 2x + 00.0°. That seemed to give me the seamless loop I wanted, as it played that way in AE. However, when I went back to Encore, I run into a problem.
On preview, and on a burned test disc, the menu played fine for one cycle (4 sec). Then it flashed to an all white background for about the same length of time. It then reverted to the motion background once through again, and continued to alternate between menu and white screen that way. I took a look and discovered that I had left the menu duration at 10 secs from an earlier setting. So I changed it to 4 secs to match the motion menu duration, assuming this would fix the problem.
It did shorten up the white flash to where it's now just what looks like 10 frames or so, but it's still there. I suppose I can try to fudge it, trimming the menu duration by a few frames until I lose the white flash altogether, but a) seems to me I shouldn't have to do that, and b) I question if the loop will be seamless after trimming like that.
Any ideas why this is happpening?
Thanks!
bobby

Loop in motion assistant specified number of times?

I was wondering if in motion assistant I can do a loop in my script so that each movement can be repeated many, many times without having to create a new 'step' for each movement? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nichole

Nichole,
Motion Assistant does not currently support loops in its environment. What I recommend is that you create your steps with just one pass and then add the loop in the code Motion Assistant generates.
Rodger S.

Issue with Motion Menu looping in CS6

Greetings all! I have been troubled with a recurring issue in a project I've been working on for a while where my Main Menu (the only one I have with a moving background) will not loop correctly. I am not an Encore veteran so there may be something simple that I'm doing wrong and just haven't caught yet... or perhaps this is some weird bug, I'm not sure. Here is what I've set up and the problem I'm having:
My Main Menu has 4 buttons: one goes to a primary video and the others are 3 submenus... all submenus work fine and can link back to the Main Menu without issue and when the Main Menu first loads, it also works fine with the video in the background playing normally. The primary video linked from the Main Menu also returns to the Main Menu as its End Action. My problem arises when the Main Menu is allowed to reach the end of its video and loops back to the beginning again before navigating away to another part of the disc. When it loops, the background video plays all the way through a second time like you would expect, however the menu is no longer interactive and no buttons can be pressed (the highlight also disappears on the second loop). Following the conclusion of the second loop, the Main Menu doesn't loop a third time but rather jumps randomly to about chapter 2 or 3 of the primary video! I have definitely not set it to do this. I was not sure what to do about the End Action of the Main Menu itself, as the "Motion" tab of the Menu's properties has a drop-down for looping the motion part... thus so far I have the End Action set to "Main Menu: Default". The motion background video is 45 seconds long and I have tried messing with the loop settings under the Motion tab, but it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference, it still breaks. Just for clarification, this is an error which I didn't notice right away because it appears to loop through the menu a second time normally, but the error occurs after the first play of the motion menu. Also, it happens both in preview and when I burn it to a disc.
If anyone else has experienced an issue like this or happens to know what I did wrong, please let me know so I can finally get this DVD project over with! I would be most grateful! Thank you!

Project corruption most frequently occurs because one or more changes are made and Encore gets "confused." But we rarely know why some such changes behave correctly and others do not.
If you must change an asset use a different name, never ever simply overwrite.
This just may be the issue then... Using Adobe's fancy "Dynamic Link" thingy I did edit a few assets after importing them into Encore. Sadly, I think Encore is definitely confused by this as now every time I open my project it prompts me to re-import one of the assets because it detected "changes" when in fact I have not changed it more than once and it is just trying to re-import the same thing over and over. I really wish I'd known to take these measure beforehand as I'm not sure how long it'll take now to rebuild the project completely, but I suppose I have no other choice if I want a working menu... wish me luck!
I'd like to note, however, that the asset that it always prompts me for is NOT related in any way to the Main Menu that is causing problems. It's an asset linked to from a different submenu. Also, I had planned everything out first, but as you might expect, little hiccups appear along the way and things need to be tweaked to have them work the way you want. Or maybe you think to add something later that you hadn't thought of before, it actually happens pretty often.
Still, it seems like Adobe is trying to promote the easy manipulation of assets within projects with the Dynamic Link feature. I really hate how these softwares do not even work the way they should... and yet Adobe charges people insane amounts of money for them.
Is there any good DVD authoring software that isn't so temperamental? I apologize if this isn't the appropriate place to ask... just curious for the sake of my own sanity.

Optimum servo pid loop rate

Hi,
I want some confirmation on the optimum pid loop rate and the fastest servo motor operation that we can acheive with Pxi-7352 running on Window.
The manual of 7352 says "62 μs PID loop update rate for up to 2 axes". The requirment is to acheive periodic equi sized straight line and rotary motion ( using yaskawa servo motors in torque mode and 7352 to close position loop ) Both motion are independant and not operating simultaneous i.e rotary completes one full rotation in small steps and then linear moves by one small step then rotary completes next rotation in small steps and again linear motor moves this continues till end of test.
you can observe here that both rotary and liner motion are periodic and move equi spaced distance for each step with small stoppage/dwell time of 500 u sec , The catch is in addition to positional accuracy in terms of 50 -100 microns the time for complete each step is also very crucial and very small (many peridoc steps together consitute complete linear and rotary motion). Find expected velocity profile attached for more details on desired timing.
As the motors have simple and periodic straight line and rotary motion i suppose buffered contour moves are not needed which have limitation of 10 msec between two points, then can the time to acheive each step be as low as 2.5 to 5 msec considering best loop rate of 62.5 u sec and highest/worst pid loop rate of 500 usec.
1. Is the expected timing of 2.5 - 5 m sec feasible assuming that the motor is capable of reaching 5000 rpm which is well above desired speed.
2. 735x series being high performance motion controller what is the order of closed loop timing that we can expect for simple and periodic moves (say in order of 1000 usec or 10 msec)
3. Can i interface one stepper motor and another servo motor where both the motors and drives are in position mode on single 7352 and UMI 7772.
4. Are there any limitation if NI motion is not used for code development and NI motion Assistant along with LabVIEW is used instead.
This is precision application and the component is very small ,the weight of the component would be less than 400 grams so i hope we do not have to consider inertial affect on motion significantly.
Appriciate if some one with similar experience can provide more details.
Regards,
Bipin
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
Velocity Profile.png ‏21 KB

Hi Bipin,
thank you for your comprehensive post. I had a close look at your timing specs and I strongly doubt, that these specs can be met with a 7352 board. Even though the PID loop rate of 62.5µs might be enough, both trajectory generator and the supervisory control (host communication, move command sequencing,...) are too slow to meet your requirements. Please note, that the trajectory generator always works with a timing interval of 10 ms, regardless of the operation mode (linear move, contouring, blending,...), so there is no way to reach your timing specs with this product. In general contouring is the fastest way to run a quick succession of moves, as it doesn't require host communication (by the way: onboard programs don't execute much faster, than programs that are running on the host).
I don't want to make negative mareketing for our 735x boards, but your timing requirements are just way beyond the requirements of typical motion control applications and it's probably quite hard to find any COTS product in the market, that can meet these specs.
With this said, I would like to offer you an alternative solution, that is based on NI's FPGA technology. Additionally to a faster trajectory generator a faster control loop is probably also very desireable for your application. Even with the lowest price Virtex-II based R-Series multifunction board (PCI-7830R) you can run PID loops with 5µs cycle time and the trajectory generator at the same rate. You even can use a different type of control algorithm if required. This technology is leveraged very successfull in a lot of applications with very high performance and accuracy requirements (here are some examples).
So these are the pros, but where are the cons? Well, the R-Series boards are general purpose FPGA boards and not ready to run motion control boards, so you need to develop the low-level control application by yourself. The good news here is, that it can all be done graphically in LabVIEW and that there are many ready to run examples for motion control, that can be used as a base for your development. Additionally you may want to have a look at the NI SoftMotion Development Module for LabVIEW, that simplifies the development of motion control applications, but it is not a mandatory tool and the benefits of this module might not be as high for your application, as ithey are for more standard motion control applications.
I hope that helps.
Kind regards,
Jochen Klier
National Instruments

Buttons that play motion track only when selected

I'd like to create a chapter menu such that as the chapter buttons are selected, a short loop of motion video (or audio+video) track plays somewhere on the screen, When focus moves away from the button, the track either goes away entirely or freezes at its start frame.
A good example of what I'm talking about would be the chapter menus of any of the Lord Of The Rings Extended Editions.
Is this possible with DSP?

The other way to achieve the effect is to use overlay shapes as masks which you make transparent when selected. You composite the motion areas as part of the background and then make an overlay to cover them. Set the overlay shape to be large enough and make it fully opaque when not selected/activated. You can then reveal the video underneath as you move from button to button.
This will work much faster than moving from menu to menu but there are some issues to consider...
Firstly, when you click on a button, your player may remove ALL overlay masks momentarily which will reveal all background videos. Similarly, when returning to the menu you may have a slight delay when the menu first appears, so that all video is again visible for a fraction of a second. This effect is not seen on every player, but some are worse for it than others.
Secondly, there is no way of controlling where abouts you start the video clip as the mask is removed - it will simply loop in the background and each time the mask is removed the clip will show from where it currently is.
However, if these are not major issues for you, then this technique will give you faster responses to your button selection and activation than moving between menus. If you want to have finer control over things then the multi-menu approach is the only one to consider!

In a RT motion and data system, what is the best variable handling structure(s)?

I built a system that applies motion control to two axes and also takes data from a third axis encoder.
The program structure is parallel timed loops (one motion control loop, one data collection loop, one host communication loop) with front panel.
This is targeted to a RT target; there is no host program.
Now I am using global variables to pass information between the loops and for exchanging information with the front panel indicators and controls. I think this is a suboptimal solution. I am considering the following changes:
1) For communicating variable values (such as commanded velocity and position) to the motion loop, I will replace the global variable structures with onboard variables in the motion card memory.
2) For saving the data collected from the third axis, I will use an RT-FIFO structure in the RT controller memory.
3) I will eliminate the front panel from the RT program and create a separate user interface program targeted to the host PC. Communication between these programs will be accomplished using the Simple TCP/IP Messaging Protocol as described in this document:
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/0986799C984500F886256F170079411E
Global variables will be replaced with Motion onboard variables.
Before I start this chore, am I following the best practice? Any advice on improving any aspect of this plan?
My System:
Windows XP on P4 PC ethernet to
PXI-8187 RT Controller
PXI-7350 Motion Control board
(2) servo axes with quadrature feedback
(1) additional quadrature encoder used as measuring probe
I do not have a DAQ card in this system.
Thank you!
Laine

Thanks Kristi. I understand your recommendation.
Some of my variable instances are 4 or 5 SubVIs deep. For instance, the main high priority loop calls MOVE.vi which calls CALC_ANGLE.vi, which calls CALC_MOVETIME.vi which calls CALC_VELOCITY.vi which uses the variable Initial_velocity. If Initial_velocity is received from the host in the main program, passed to the high-priority loop using an RTFIFO, then bundled and kept in a shift register, what is the best way to get that information down where I need it?
Not only will I have to redeclare the RT-FIFO in each subVI, but I will also need to pass the reference value cluster down the chain as well? This sounds messy and computationally expensive to me. So my choices might be
1) Eliminate subVIs and bring everything to the top. This is a rather large program, so could make quite an extensive top vi if all code is in one place.
2) Use onboard variables to store and pass values. Are these less deterministic than RTFIFOs? What is their primary purpose if not to pass data, or are they just to be used with motion card onboard programming?
3) Use global variables, but I think these are not deterministic.
4) Bite the bullet and pass the variable cluster down through the SubVI chain. Is there an easier way to do this than what I describe above?
Have I made any bad assumptions or overcomplications?
Thanks.
Laine

AS3 looping help

This can't be too difficult but I can't seem to figure it out. Could someone please tell me how to loop this motion.
I have added some action script to horizontally animate a strip of text... now I need that to loop so it's continuous.
this is my code
countries_mc.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, fl_AnimateHorizontally);
function fl_AnimateHorizontally(event:Event)
    countries_mc.x -= 2;
thanks
emma

It does work and I have tweeked it a bit but the loop doesn't work when you make it go in the opposite direction.
Here's the code
countries_mc.addEventListener(
Event.ENTER_FRAME, fl_AnimateHorizontally);
//moving _mc from right to left-this works perfectly
function fl_AnimateHorizontally(event:Event)
    countries_mc.x+= 5;
     if (countries_mc.x > stage.stageWidth){               countries_mc.x=-520;      }
} //moving movie clip from left to right?-i cant get this part to work
text_mc.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, fl_AnimateHorizontally2);
function fl_AnimateHorizontally2(event:Event)
    text_mc.x+=-5;      if (text_mc.x > stage.stageWidth){               text_mc.x=0;      }

Error message using still in menu: your project is using more than1 gb of motioncontent

tocAfter making several discs in Encore CS4 I now get the message:
Building project failed.
The project contains more than 1 GB of motioncontent. The limit is 1 GB. You must reduce the total duration of the motion menu to make them fit on the disc.
Little confused, because I use a still, there no loops and the project is 2.65 gb. There no loops is motion
In the asset I've placed the avi and in the link the timeline. I did that before with film that was about 9 minutes.
Maybe there I'm making a mistake, but Idon't know it anymore.
Please help
JosZon

That is not the problem. That was clear to me. When I use one menu with music and one button, I have that problem
If all of your Menus and their Assets (any video and/or audio) use more than 1GB of space, then you must cut back on something in the Menus. If you have included a long AV file, for instance, then you will want to go back to your NLE and shorten it. About 40 sec. of Duration would be a good place to start. If your music is a large, long file, then you need to shorten its Duration.
As per the DVD-specs. ALL Menu Assets may not be larger than 1GB. If you are getting this error, then you have more than 1GB of Menus and their Assets.
Good luck,
Hunt

Video in button Selected state?

I'm rusty in DVDSP - been a couple of years since my last DVD menu project, but I have one now and the client has provided the menu art and description of what they want - but there are 2 items I'm not sure if I can include the way they want, and before I re-prep their art for Studio Pro (because, of course, it was prepped as if for print), I want to determine the best course to take, and reset their expectations, if necessary.
1) They want video to play in a button, but only when it is selected - I can drop video in using shapes, but it's playing in all states. I can't use a layered menu, because the background also is motion (subtle looping, but motion just the same). Thought maybe I'd build the motion in the buttons and mask over with a still in normal state, reveal in selected, but can't seem to get there. So any ideas, or am I spinning my wheels trying to accomplish?
2) They've prepped the buttons as if rollovers in a Flash presentation - the normal state has an image with a white border around it and title underneath - but the selected state has those as black PLUS a small arrow pointing at the title. I can't do a straight shape with text, because the arrow element will be present in all states. I can't do a layered menu because of the motion background. So what I've come up with is embedding the normal states of the button (white, without the arrow) into the motion background, and then create a shape with the text (black, with the arrow) but with only the highlight layer and no shape layer so that only the black highlight layer shows up over it when selected. This works, but I have to position it PRECISELY over the background normal button, or else white edges show and it gets ugly. So, is there a better way to do this that I'm overlooking?
Thanks very much to anyone who has taken the time to read this novel, and even more thanks to anyone who has some insight into any possible solutions (or lack thereof).

There is another way, but it's tricky.
You create a series of menus that are almost identical. In the first, all buttons show still images, and the button auto activates to a copy of the menu where the appropriate button shows a video. If you have four buttons, you'll need five menus all exactly the same except in the last four, single buttons have video, others are stills. Every button that is a still auto activates to go to the appropriate menu where that button has video. Every video based button links to the relevant track.
In practice, the user will see a still image, and when they select it (or roll over with a mouse if on a computer) the menu will jump to the associated sub menu where that button now has video and the others show stills.
The problem here is that on some (most) players there will be a pause between the menus, and it won't be a slick and quick change.
Using the masking technique is better in lots of ways, however as Drew said it will be hard to match the colours. Also, the mask shape will need to be your 'still' image (which might help obscure the colour differences) and this can only have four colours.
A further consideration is that the mask shape will be part of the button highlight (well.... it will BE the button highlight) and as such will exist in the subpicture stream. It is impossible to guarantee that this will stay in place or be in place when leaving or entering a menu. In effect, when you click a button the first thing to disappear is the sub picture stream, which means all of your videos will be visible for a fraction of a second, or perhaps slightly longer. Secondly, when entering a menu, the last thing to be created is the subpicture stream, which means that all of your button videos will be showing for a fraction of a second until they get covered.
The amount of delay in each case will depend on the player. For some it'll be tiny. For others it'll be seconds and will ruin the effect you are looking for.
I would probably prefer the delay as you change menus to the revelation of all the button videos, but you'll have to decide for yourself which is better!

Using the extra content from FCP7 on FCPx?

I have Final Cut Studio 3 (Final Cut 7) and Final Cut X on different startup disks just as Apple recommended back last year. Easy for me to do since I have a Mac Pro, so I followed Apple's recommendation, but how do I use the Apple Audio Loops for Soundtrack Pro from Final Cut Studio 3? I have the audio loops on a "data" HDD.
Can I use the templates and LiveFonts from Motion 4 on the new Motion 5?
Final Cut Studio 3 also came with 9GB of templates etc for DVD Studio Pro, is that in any way useful with FCPx? Could the DVD Studio Pro content be used with Toast or some other DVD/Blu-ray authoring/menu software?
By the way, I think I found all the extra content that came with Final Cut Studio 3, but to be sure I have them all, where are they all located?
Thanks for all your help!

I am not sure whether FCP X can use the .caf music but try them by navigating to them in the Effects browser or dropping them in the FCP X browser.
You can't use Live Fonts templates . . . except in LiveType and Motion 4.
The DVDSP content can only be used in DVDSP but that is no problem.
Simply export your video from FCP X in the correct format and use DVDSP as usual.
DVDSP content . . . /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Studio/DVDSP
Soundtrack content . . . /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple
Motion content . . . /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Studio/Motion
LiveFonts . . . . /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Studio/LiveType/LiveFonts

Slowtime pt 2

Thanks for the reply patrick,sorry it's been a while
anyway i trashed the QT pkg & reinstalled QT7 still nothing worked.
Until i installed safari 3,some things went back to normal like
websites with flash or QT loops,but motion 3 is still rendering slow
& sometimes playback stutters.i read somewhere that the graphic card
which is supplied with the MBP is under clocked to keep it quiet,but!
to speed it up you need software what runs on microsoft.
theirs NO way i'm gonna make it more complicated than it already is
(for me anyway)Thanks again Ciao!

Hi,
Hr time data is stored referencing 'time types'. So for example
'Normal Work hours' might be time Type 0002 or Overtime might be 0310.
For BW extraction time types must be grouped to form 'reporting time
types'. A reporting time type can contain more then one time type. So
for example if customer just wishes to report on absences in BW and
they are not interested in the nature of these absences the can add all
absence time types into one reporting time type, the key figures will
be aggregated accordingly. If a time type is not contained in a
reporting time type the record will not be extracted by 0hr_pt_2
'Reporting time types' are maintained in sbiw->Settings for
Application-Specific DataSources->Human Resources >Actual employee
times >Define reporting time types >Maintain Accumulators for
Employee Times You can view the actual 'time types' on the system in
transaction spro >Time Management >Time data recording and
Admin?Absences/Attendances >Define Absences/Attendances. The source
table is 554S.
regards,
Colin

7344 servo motion switching between open and closed loop operation

I have a custom end-of-line test system presently using a 4-axis 7344 servo controller to perform various functional tests on small, brushed DC motors. The system is programmed in C/C++ and uses flex motion functions to control the motor during testing. Motors are coupled to external encoder feedback and third party PWM drives running in closed-loop torque mode from an analog command signal. The system uses all four motion axis channels on the 7344 board to independently and asynchronously test up to four production motors at a time.
In closed-loop mode, the system runs without issue, satisfying the battery of testing protocols executed by this system. I now have a request to add additional test functionality to the system. This testing must be run in open loop mode. Specifically, I need to use my +/- 10v analog output command to my torque drive to send different DAC output levels to the connected motor.drive while monitoring response.
I do not believe the flex motion library or 7344 controller includes functions to easily switch between open and closed loop mode without sending a new drive configuration. I am also under the impression that I cannot reconfigure one (or more) servo controller axis channels without disabling the entire drive. As my system runs each axis channel in an asynchronous manner, any requirement to shutdown all drives each time I change modes is an unworkable solution.
I am open to all ideas that will allow asynchronous operation of my 4 motor testing stations. If the only solution is to add a second 7344 controller and mechanical relays to switch the drive and motor wiring between two separately configured servo channels, so be it. I just want to explore any available avenue before I place a price tag on this new system requirement.
Bob

Jochen,
Thank you for the quick response. The 7344 board does an excellent job running my manufacturing motor assemblies through a custom end-of-line tester in closed loop mode. A portion of the performance history and test result couples the motor through a mechanical load and external shaft. The shaft is in contact with a linear encoder that closes my servo loop.
My new manufacturing requirement is to also sample/document how the small DC motor behaves in open loop operation. Your solution is exactly what I need to perform the additional functional tests on the product I am manufacturing. I see no reason why this cannot work. I was originally concerned that I would need to reinitialize the 7344 board after changing axis configuration. Initialization is a global event and impacts all four channels on the 7344 board.
Using flex_config_axis() to change axis configuration on a single channel without disturbing other potentially running axis channels will solve my concern. It will be several weeks before I can return to the manufacturing facility where the 7344-based testing machine is located. I will update this thread once I verify a successful result.
Bob

Looping particles in motion 4 don't loop in 5

This is a little hard to explain so bear with me.
I've long been creating looping particle emitters in Motion 4 using the trick where you set a constant birth rate that suddenly drops to 0 final keyframe at the end, duplicate the element, slide the duplicate element so that the final keyframe is at frame 0, extend the length of the element so that the dying particles for the duplicate creates the overlap for the loop. In other words, the end of original element is exactly the same as frame 0 of the copy. Works great as long as you don't add any randomness like gravity or wiggles.
HOWEVER, this method doesn't work in Motion 5! If I bring in a project that I've gotten to loop nicely in 4, it's goofed up in 5. When the element is duplicated, their endings are exactly the same. As soon as I slide the copy backwards on the timeline, its ending changes. The emitter shouldn't be different depending on where it falls on the timeline but in Motion 5 it is. I don't know how to fix this!! Looping backgrounds are my bread and butter so I may not be able to move to Motion 5. Before you suggest the FCP overlapping movies trick, I've done that in the past and it's usually not as good looking and fast as the method I've been using.
Here's a link to the project in 4 so you can compare them in 4 and 5
http://www.muellermultimedia.com/images/example.motn
Any ideas on why 5 is different now?

Hey Lauri, I've downloaded your project and I see what you're doing - very clever. And I have to say that it's the first project I've had that actually ran faster in Mo5 than Mo4. I was only getting 7fps in Mo4, but 30 in Mo5.
What I did in Motion 5 to get it to loop properly is to extend the length of the project by 300 frames, slide everything downstream, so the initial period doesn't take place before the project starts, then set my play range to start 300 frames later.
So it loops, but the working part is within the range of the timeline.
Here's the modified example:
http://howtocheatinmotion.com/viewing/example5.zip
best,
Patrick

RT multi-motor motion control in a closed loop system

Hello NI Community,
We have 12 stepper motors with load cells attached in line on each motor that are connected to a RT PXI chassis. We use an optical system to gather 3D data on the host computer which is used to calculate relative angles between 2 connected objects. This data is passed to the RT target as one of several feedback based control strategies that are used (relative angles, force on each load cell, motor position, etc.). Our Labview code is setup to utilize any of these control strategies for any motor, often using multiple strategies for different motors at the same time. The code deployed to our RT target is currently a single timed loop that incorporates the load cell reads, PID control calculations, motor command writes and position reads. In determining the timing of this loop we find it to be ~18Hz. We would like to integrate a new control strategy that is inefficient below 30Hz and are trying to determine how we can achieve this. It seems that our limiting factor is the constant writing/reading of each motor at ~4.6ms/motor, although this doesn't seem correct with the posted 62us speeds shown in the specs for the motion controllers. I'm not sure if this there is a setting that I am missing somewhere that is preventing me from achieving these speeds or if this is a function limitation of our hardware setup. We would like to achieve this with all 12 motors, although not all motors are always in use. The PXI components we are using are listed below.
PXI-1050 Chassis
PXI-8105 RT Controller
PXI-7344 Motion Controllers
UMI-7774 Motion Interface
Would any of the following be more advantageous than the others or is there another method someone has found useful in speeding up their systems.
Split motor read/write into another timed loop with a higher priority over the PID loop. (deterministic approach)
Create a unique read/write loop for each of the 3 Motion Controllers
Create boolean activation to ensure only the motors that are being used are incorporated in the control scheme
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I included as many details as possible. Thank you in advance for your help with this.
Brian

Hey,
Have you tried diagnosing where the problem is by seperating the processes and timing them to see what is causing the delay of the motor control to ~5ms?
Regards,
A. Zaatari
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

Looping a motion

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