Simple stepper motion control

Hello all, I am completely new to motion control and my head is spinning with all the options so please bear with me, all help is much appreciated.
I am trying to build a control which will perform point to point movement of something like this:
http://www.haydonkerk.com/LinearActuatorProducts/StepperMotorLinearActuators/LinearActuatorsHybrid/S...
It will be moving to a specified point and then returning to the "home" position, holding and then repeating for a number of cycles. The timing of the movement needs to be pretty accurate, each movement cycle will last about 2 tenths of a second. There will be a few parameters that the user should be able to select before beginning the test.
I think I will need to execute this in real time and I am really hoping to do the programming in Labview for no other reason than I like it better than text based. So my question is really what hardware and software am I going to need to get this done? I went through the info on NI's website and due to my lack of background knowledge it was pretty confusing. It looks like as far as software goes it will basically be Real-Time module. For hardware it looks like a controller and a driver. If I had the PXI-7332 controller and the P70530 driver am I good to go? Or am I missing some critical aspect
Also, if any has any good recommendations for some reading on these sorts of things I would be interested in that as well.
Thanks.

Hi Nick,
We've got two basic options for motion control- PC based, or RIO based. These types of questions are actually quite common for support, if you'd like to contact NI. If not, post back and I'd be happy to help.
Cheers,
Marti C
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
NI Medical

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Position drift during the stepper motor controlled back and forth motion

Hi everyone there,
I get a headache position drift problem during the stepper motor controlled back and forth motion. I have been wroking on the problem for the last two weeks, and still can not figure it out. So I write down here my problem in hope of getting some clues from those have some experiences in stepper motor motion control.
My goal is to use a stepper motor to drive a beam flage fixed onto the shaft to go back and forth for a certain angle, and this back and forth motion needs to be stable and reproducible within hours. With the SMD1 stepper motor driver, I only need to send in a pulse train to control the number of steps(the pulse frequency defines the stepping rate), and another pulse to controle the direction (i.e., cw or ccw). To do this, in LabView, I used the counter of the DAQ board to produce a finite pulse train to step the motor, and used one digital line to produce a pulse to switch the direction every 500ms, the timing is contolled by the software.(I used the oscilloscope to monitor these two pulses, the pulse train produced by the counter looks very stable, and delay between the pulse edges of the direction pulse and the pulse train is also very stable within 500ms. There seems no software timing problems at such a long delay.) And this labview controlled motor appears to work perfectly as I required, the motor steps a defined number of steps at one direction, and then steps back at the origin position. But after running for a few minutes, the back position shifts gradually(I can not observe a obvious shift at the first few minutes) with repect to the origin position(the position I start running). I looked it up at the manual and also the website, I got a clue that this might because the motor steps at the resonace frequency of the motor and hence misses or takes extral steps sometimes. So I changed the steping rate from 1Hz to 1000Hz to see if the shift disappears or gets smaller at certain frequency range, but the shift always exists.
I did observe the shift got smaller within the same running time when change the step model from full step (1.8degree/step)to half and quarter step model. According to this, the motor did miss steps (or pulses) during running, the quarter step model has smaller shift due to the smaller steps. But I also noticed that the motor always shift at one direction, no matter I started with clockwise or counter-clockwise, this seems really strange to me. Because the motor should shift at each direction with the same probability if we assume the motor missis steps randomly.
There is something must be wrong, either the labveiw program or the motor, but I don't even know a clue of this weird shift problem. And because of this, I haven't made any progress in my lab for the last three weeks. So any suggestions could be very helpful for solving this headache and will be really appreciated.
Thanks a million in advance and Merry Christmas!
Li

Hey, Brian Beal,
Thanks for your quick response. "accel" and "decel" mean acceleration and deceleration, am I understanding right?
If yes, then I don't have these in my LabView program, I just generate one TTL pulse train and one TTL pulse with LabView and send them into the SMD1 stepper motor driver.
The pulse train steps the shaft, and the other switchs the direction.
Yesterday, I confirmed that if the motor steer always at one direction either CW or CCW, then the stepping were very stable, no missing or extra steps happen for hours.
And I also observed that the motor took one extra step from time to time when the direction changes. And this only happens when the direction switch from CW to CCW. (bizarre!)
I guess this indicates that some pulse noise happens when the motor switch the direction too often. But I just don't have any clue for irregular extra steps.

Simple straight line motion control with brushless motor and encoder/microswitch

I want to go build a motion control system/program using labview. I have a brushless motor and a controller and a National instrument DAC (NI USB-6009). This is how my system looks like: receive an input signal 4-20mA, this should be converted to 0-5V for the controller for speed, controller should move motor till it hits micro switch. The micro switch/encoder should generate a signal (5V) back to shut the controller. I want to record the position of the motor in labview. How do I do this? How do I set the system up? Thank you in advance

Controller from anaheimautomation: MDC151-050301
Motor:BLWSG234D-36V-4000-R3
Controller and motor go together.
The input signal for the system will be 4-20mA. Using this signal I will correlate it to a specific voltage which will drive the speed of the motor. This will displace the lead screw linearly. I will have a microswitch that will be triggered by screw and will relay a signal to shut the motor. I want find a way to record the position of the shaft/leadscrew at that specific point. I want to identify a home position, halfway position and full length travel position. I will use 3 swiches or 1 switch in three positions to identify all these points.
My end result should be whwn I turn on the system or start the program It should detect whether it is at the home position, if not travel to home then respond accordigly given an input signal(4-20mA).
How will I program such on labview...finding all the right icons to record the data is such a mess for me since i'm a beginner.
Thanks

"Distributed motion control'

Hi there,
For a future project we are making a first study, and as I'm not really familiar with NI solutions, I hope some of you can share some thoughts.
For this project, we will have to control the following hardware:
- 28 cryogenic stepper motors in open loop (no encoder feedback possible) and very simple motions ("move x degrees") just a few times per hour max.
- 2 cryogenic stepper motors in open loop, but with a constantly changing position setpoint (>50Hz should be fine)
- 50-100 I/O temperature and pressure readings (sampling in de range of a few Hz maximum)
How would a possible "NI solution" look?
Our systems engineering guidelines say that it is highly preferrably to move the "control unit" away from the instrument (say 50 meters apart, in a computer room), and that all fieldbuses should be ethernet based. In that case I was thinking to have:
- a PXI chassis in the computer room
- an EtherCAT connection from the PXI chassis to a daisy chain of 4 NI-9144 expansion chassis, all equipped with the 28+2 NI 9512 stepper controllers, connected to 28+2 stepper drivers
- an extra NI-9144 (or compactFieldpoint chassis) for the DAQ
It seems quite rediculous to have so many NI-9144 expansion chassis, so another solution is to ignore the "control unit near instrument" rule and to have a single PXI controller with 4 8-axis stepper controller boards and a few DAQ boards inside.
Another solution would be to have 28+2 standalone third-party stepper "controller and drivers" inside the instrument, connected with an ethernet fieldbus to a labview target in the computer room. But I'm having troubles of finding suitable stepper controllers+drivers (maybe because stepper motors and ethernet motion control are not so commonly found in industry?)
Thanks for any thoughts on this,
Wim

We've roughly worked out a layout of such a control system on paper, but it remains a quite vague "study" until the project enters the next stage (which depends on funding since it's a scientific instrument). I can send you a document about it if you want (just PM me your e-mail address), but I doubt it'll be of much use. Anyway the final solution will look much different from our original plan, and if I'd have any say in it, I'd most likely choose a PLC-based solution over this one.
Wim

How can I use flex motion control VI without hardware?

I would like to try and simulate the motion control of my system before i hook up the motion control card. But when I use the VI in flex motion contro took kit it asks for address or something and gives me an error. Can't I just simulate without hardware?

Hello,
The only way you can use FlexMotion without any hardware is to set it up as Open Loop Stepper Control. Otherwise, you will get errors when no encoder signal is fed back to the controller.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Andy Bell
Application Engineer
National Instruments

Motion Control via Serial Port

I have previously developed an automated video microscope application in Labview. It worked great. My setup was: NI PXI system with 1409 image board, 7344 motion controller, 7764 breakout box, stepper motors, motor drivers, and tables. Now, a customer is requiring that we use a specific brand of drivers that encompass a motion controller and are daisy-chained together. Communication will take place from a serial port, thereby bypassing the 7344. My question is: will I have to can my entire previous Labview motion/data acquisition program b/c I won't be using the 7344 controller? Or, will it be easy to specify in the program to commmunicate via the serial port rather than the card? Would this setup take place in MAX, or in the LabView applicatio
n itself? Any nuances that I should know about? Any info would be appreciated. THANX-ROB

Rob,
in this case you won't be able to use any of your motion related code. The motion VIs in LabVIEW call the NI-Motion driver dll and thus they are not hardware independant. By the way, this is not a specific disadvantage of the NI-Motion driver. In fact there is not such a thing available like a standardized interface and hardware independant motion control language.
In general you will have to use low level serial communication (VISA). That means you have to read the drive/controller manual, identify the serial command strings you need and send them to the device.
For configuration the drive vendor should provide a utility to set the necessary parameters.
On the other hand you could be lucky in the case that the vendor of the drive/controller provides h
igh level LabVIEW vis. You should check with this vendor if a LabVIEW driver is available. Still you will have to rewrite your motion related part of the code.
I'm sorry that there are no better news.
Best regards,
Jochen
NI-Germany

What kind of equipment do i need for motion control

i'm new to computerized actuators, i need to control a stepper motor that can turn both directions and can be controlled by a 0-5 volt sensor. i need to be able to set the targeted volts and have it turn one direction if its reading over, and the other direction if its reading under. What should i buy.

Hey Jaspittman,
I would also recommend the following web site called Build Your Own Motion Control System which will walk you through the steps of what you will need to build your motion system. Also, I would suggest taking a look at the Motion Advisor page if you will be using any 3rd party hardware (i.e. motors, drives, stages) which can be found at the following link Advisors for Motion. These two sites have a lot of helpful information to get you started.
Regards,
DJ L.

Can't turn off motion control

Hello everyone,
First time on here. Just got a u410. Anyway I downloaded adobe reader. When I opened it I got a message that said motion control can be enabled for this application. So curiously, I turned it on. But now I don't know how to turn it off. Everyone time I open adobe reader, the camera automatically turns off. How can I turn off motion control?

anderslq wrote:
Seriously?! There has to be a simple way to switch off the quite annoying Lenovo Motion Control...?
I have now been using it for a while, but in general iit is more of a nuissance - any movement in front of the screen when presenting makes the slideshow jump ahead or back.
If I click the little message in the top right corner announciing that motion control is activated (it says something like "click here to configure") absolutely nothing happens. If I click the Motion Control icon (on the Start page) the computer switches back to the last program used, no matter what it was, and then nothing else happens...
What is the right way to really switch this function on/off...???
Sorry, but my suggestion does not apply to your situation. I responded to the original post. I have not read your problem when I made the suggestion. You should know that. Maybe you should try openning a different thread, not bump the orginal one.

Motion control et Labview 6.1

Bonjour,
Je viens d'installer une carte PMC MFX PCI Series 1000 Multiflex Motion Control en remplacement d'une carte isa (incompatible avec les nouveaux systèmes).Un prog correspondant Motion Control gère le déplacement de sondes sur une table 1 axe de chez Schneeberger.
L'ancien système, à savoir Labview 4, Motion Control pour la carte isa, et PCI 6035E (acquisition de données)exécute le déplacement dans un sens , s'arrête, et repart vers sa position initiale dite origine ou home (fait exactement le cycle proposé par le CW demo.
Avec le nouveau système, à savoir Labview 6.1, carte PCI remplaçant la isa, PCI 6035E gère le déplacement aller, mais après arrêt ne reprend pas la position initiale.
Il faut savoir que les résultats de l'acquisition (face avant et création dans fichiers tableurs)n'apparaissent qu'une fois que la procédure de retour du chariot est activée (donc invisible sur le nouveau système et le chariot doit être ramené manuellement avec CW demo).
Aussi, remarque importante, le cycle proposé par CW demo fonctionne avec le nouveau système (activation sous WinControl de la bipolarité PWM avec 1om2).
J'aimerais savoir ce qui peut provoquer ceci dans le diagramme joint (piste sur MCGo Home.vi)
Merci.
Attachments:
BOSCDII16marsfintableau21.vi ‏815 KB

alamarque,
Tout d'abord, je n'ai pas les VI de controle de votre carte d'axes. De plus, la carte de contrôle d'axes en question n'est pas une carte NI, donc je ne connais ni les fonctions, ni l'outil CW Demo.
Le plus simple serait de procéder par ordre.
1. Avez vous des exemples simples de VI Lv mettant en oeuvre votre carte de contrôle d'axes? Si oui, avez vous essayé de les faire fonctionner seul?
Peut être que le problèmes rencontré provient de la configuration de votre carte.
2. Etes vous sur que l'application original fonctionnait bien en Lv 4.1 . La compatibilité est ascendante, et je ne vois pas de raison concernant le non fonctionnement de ce VI.
3. J'ai vérifié les fonctions d'acquisition de la carte NI que vous utilisez. Elles sont rudimentaires, et dans le cas ou elles produiraient une erreurs, vous en seriez directement informé par une Popup d'erreur. Si vous n'avez pas d'exemples pour le point 1, je vous invite à faire un nouveau VI n'implémentant que la communication Motion (Votre mouvement d'aller retour) afin de déterminé si vous êtes capable de faire votre aller retour.
4. Etes vous sur que le jeu de fonction Lv qui vous a servi a piloter la carte Motion ISA, est bien compatible avec votre nouvelle cartes PMC. Je penses que le constructeur de la carte pourra vous éclairer sur ce sujet. Peux être avez vous besoin d'un nouvelle DLL.
Raphael TILLET
NI FRANCE
Cordialement,
Raphael T

PCI6602 for motion control?

Hi, I am wondering if it is possible to use the pulse generation of the
PCI6602 to control a stepper motor
driver, the problem is that I need aceleration and deceleration in the
pulse train.
I'm using the PCI6602 for event counting (~ MHz), and I need to
synchronize the data acquisition to the stepper motor pulses at a rate
of ~10 KHz. It would be nice to use a single card for both acquisition
and motion control.
thanx,
Stefano

Stefano,
Yes, you could use the PCI-6602 to control a stepper motor. This will require two counters per stepper axis to control the step/dir or CW/CCW lines, or one counter per axis if you only want to move in one direction. You would need to programmatically ramp up the pulse rate to control acceleration. However, since updating the output pulse train frequency is software timed, acceleration may not be very smooth and you risk losing step. Also, you would need to manually handle any pull in moves.
While you could achieve reasonable stepper control with the counter board with some trial and error, the PCI-7334 would probably be a better solution. This controller easily handles acceleration and deceleration and allows you to route the encoder signals over the
RTSI bus to control the data acquisition process.
Regards,
Brent Runnels
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

PCMCIA card for motion control

Hi,
I am trying to control a stepper motor through LABVIEW. After perusing through the site, I know that I would need a stepper motor, a corresponding motion controller and a universal motion interface. The problem I have is that I am trying to control the stepper motor through a laptop (which does not have the Parallel Port slot). I am wondering if a PCMCIA card could work (by providing a parallel port to the laptop) or if it would not meet the necessary requirements to operate the motion control through the universal motion interface.
Thanks

It IS possible to drive an UMI interface with a parallel port providing TTL compatible outputs, basically the UMI interfaces are (advanced) break-out boxes feeding the step and direction pulses to a motor driver and connecting feedback signals (encoders, limit switches etc) back to the PC. But in this case, you would have to write your own routines for accelerating and slowing down, as well as evaluating the feedback signals from an encoder or limit switches. There are several manufactures making motor drivers which can be driven via a serial or USB interface, in case you cannot use a NI controller board it will be much easier to use such a setup since the motor drivers usually incorporate at least a basic motor controller providing a set of commands which makes it much easier to control a motor than with doing everything from scratch.

Motion control with joystich

hi every one I'm tring to contol the nxt using joystich i'm doing a simple program but i have aproblem
with the first vi the nxt response for x- axis values with out y- axis values the problem is that it the 2 cases are not working in parallel!!
how ca i use only one case structer
i have tried the vi avilable in ni about the joystick motion control but i coldn't find a solution !!
the second is working but the nxt movement is not same as the joy stick position
(my lab view version is 8.2)
please any help!!
Attachments:
joy_first.vi ‏56 KB
joy_2.vi ‏42 KB

Hi Mar-Q,
i think the direction results from the direction you press the joystick key, and the power depend on how strong you press the key (if it is possible), if not you can measure the time how long the key is already pressed and depending on that you calcualte the power.
Mike

3_Axis Motion Control

I need to enter target positions in degrees.I am using PCI 7433 Motion controller
and Servo Motors in Closed loop condition with Incremental Encoders
Thanks and regards.
Sunil

We use http://www.jrkerr.com/index.html motor control system. This uses
low cost Pics and a serial network. The drivers are a DLL and can be
called from LabVIEW. I have built multi axis devices and it has worked
real reliable. (No problems).
A company called Compu-Motion has experience building low cost hardware and
software for mult-axis devices. Compu-Motion web site is
www.compu-motion.com. Compu-Motion could help you build the hardware or
software.
John Harmon
330-848-0460
----- Original Message -----
From: Dow Airen
Newsgroups: comp.lang.labview
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 12:33 AM
Subject: 3 axis motion control- where do I start?
>
> I have to develop a hearing aid hybrid test system which will test an
array
>
> o
f hybrids. I already have the individual hybrid test code but need some
>
> guidance with the motion control. Does anybody have any good references
>
> for me on what aspects should be considered. All I really want to do is
> step
> and test but don't know much about motor types stepper/servo etc, limits,
> calibration etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dow Airen
> Design Engineer
> Crystalaid Microelectronics P/L

3 axis motion control- where do I start?

I have to develop a hearing aid hybrid test system which will test an array
of hybrids. I already have the individual hybrid test code but need some
guidance with the motion control. Does anybody have any good references
for me on what aspects should be considered. All I really want to do is
step
and test but don't know much about motor types stepper/servo etc, limits,
calibration etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Dow Airen
Design Engineer
Crystalaid Microelectronics P/L

We use http://www.jrkerr.com/index.html motor control system. This uses
low cost Pics and a serial network. The drivers are a DLL and can be
called from LabVIEW. I have built multi axis devices and it has worked
real reliable. (No problems).
A company called Compu-Motion has experience building low cost hardware and
software for mult-axis devices. Compu-Motion web site is
www.compu-motion.com. Compu-Motion could help you build the hardware or
software.
John Harmon
330-848-0460
----- Original Message -----
From: Dow Airen
Newsgroups: comp.lang.labview
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 12:33 AM
Subject: 3 axis motion control- where do I start?
>
> I have to develop a hearing aid hybrid test system which will test an
array
>
> o
f hybrids. I already have the individual hybrid test code but need some
>
> guidance with the motion control. Does anybody have any good references
>
> for me on what aspects should be considered. All I really want to do is
> step
> and test but don't know much about motor types stepper/servo etc, limits,
> calibration etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dow Airen
> Design Engineer
> Crystalaid Microelectronics P/L

4 channel independent motion controll adressing

I want to run four indepent motion/plc programs with each system using one axis and one analog output as a channel of the same motion controll card (PCI 7344)
Each indepentent system has its own bottons for starting different setions of a semi automated process and these processes are intependent in timing.
Can this be done with one 4 axis PCI 7344 NI motion card?

The answer is short and simple: yes.
You only need to make sure that the controller is initialized before
you start your four applications and that you don't share resources
between the programs.
Best regards,
Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany

Simple stepper motion control

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