News and New Products

Compact controller drives multiple motors

By Warren Webb -- EDN, 12/17/2004

A new PC/104 controller from Performance Motion Devices delivers advanced motion features, such as trajectory generation, servo-loop closure, quadrature-signal input, motor-output-signal generation, performance trace, on-the-fly changes, and commutation to dc brushed, brushless dc, and stepper motors (Picture). Available in one-, two-, three- and four-axis versions, the Magellan-PC/104 allows designers to create motion systems using standard C or C++ programming.

The Magellan-PC/104 card features S-curve, trapezoidal, velocity-contouring, electronic-gearing, and user-generated profile modes. The card accepts input parameters, such as position, velocity, acceleration, deceleration, and jerk, and generates the corresponding trajectory. The board provides servo-loop rates as high as 50 ìsec/axis, a 5 million-count/sec quadrature-encoder-input rate, and onboard trace capability of as much as 32k words. Chuck Lewin, president and chief executive officer of PMD, comments, “Motion cards have gone through an amazing evolution in the last several years. Today, it is possible to buy a cost-effective, high-volume motion card that supports multiple host connection modes and multiple motor types, yet still provides incredibly fast servo loop and pulse rate output.” Prices for the Magellan-PC/104 start at $540 (OEM quantities).

Performance Motion Devices Inc, www.pmdcorp.com.