Select a Step ......................................................... REQUIREMENTS AND SAFETY Introduction Required Materials Safety Precautions Hardware Requirements and Installation FAQs for Motion Console ––––––––––––––––––––––– MOTION CONSOLE Object-oriented Motion Control Motion Console Objects Motion Console User Interface – Main Motion Console Frame – Adding a New Controller – Object Summary Windows – Object Explorer – Object List Configuration Dialog Boxes Configuring New Systems with Motion Console – Getting Started with Motion Console – Saving Parameter Settings – Associating Objects with Motion Console – Configuring a Motion Supervisor – Mapping One Object to Another – Removing (Deleting) a Mapped Object – Safety Reminders Motion Console Objects – Controller Object – Motion Supervisor Object – Axis Object – Filter Object – Motor Object – SynqNet Object – SqNode Object – I/O Object Command Line Options Reading Versions with Motion Console Troubleshooting

Motion Console Objects

Motion Console divides motion control into several distinct software objects. Some of these objects have direct hardware equivalents, such as Motor objects. Other objects are more abstract and complicated, such as Filter objects. Motion Console provides direct configuration and monitoring of motion control objects, including:

Motion Controller – A single motion controller, capable of controlling motion supervisors, and served by a host computer. A Controller folder lists the controllers served by the host computer, of which there may be more than one. However, each Controller demands its own separate motion controller hardware (i.e., one controller board).

Motion Supervisor – Topmost level of motion control associated with a Controller. Each Motion Supervisor, in turn, has 0 (zero) or more Axes mapped to it.

Axis – A motion vector associated with either linear (e.g., linear slide), or rotary (e.g., turntable) motion, and associated with a Motion Supervisor. Each Axis has 0 (zero) or more Filters mapped to it.

Filter – Attributes applied to closed-loop motor control, such as gains and motion algorithms. Each Filter has 0 (zero) or more Motors mapped to it.

Motor – A motor, which may be either rotary (such as a rotary motor shaft), or linear (such as a linear motor, pneumatic cylinder, hydraulic actuator, etc.).

SynqNet – A SynqNet object manages a single SynqNet network that is connected to a motion controller. It represents the physical network. It contains information about the network state, number of nodes, and status.

SqNode – A SqNode object manages a single SynqNet network node that is connected to a SynqNet network. It represents the physical network node. It contains information about the node, as well as its status and configuration. It provides read/write access to the node via network cyclic data and service commands. It also provides an interface to any drives connected to the node.

I/O – I/O objects in Motion Console represent the individual I/O associated with other objects. Currently, Control, SqNode, and Motor objects support I/O, so the I/O Summary contains separate tabs for the I/O associated with those objects.

Mapping

"Mapping" means associating one object with another. For example, one axis may have one motor mapped to it (such as a motor-driven leadscrew on a slide), or one axis may have two motors mapped to it (such as a gantry crane).

Frequently, motion designers think of each axis in terms of a single motor; however, the motion controller platform allows you to expand this model. For example, the X-Y table on a three-axis machine is simply controlled by two motors, each of which represents a single, independent axis. However, it may be advantageous to add a second motor to each axis, in order to obtain independent, rapid-coarse motion and slow-fine motion. In this model, each axis has two motors associated with it: one coarse, one fine. The choice of when to use what motor is performed by a Filter object, written into the custom application code. If the fine motor is commanded to move to a point outside its range, the filter object can be configured to use the coarse motor to reposition the axis. Once the coarse motor has positioned the axis at its starting point, the filter will switch to the fine motor. This level of flexibility is made possible by object mapping.

Motors 1 and 2 (M1 and M2) are mapped to Axis 1 (A1) on the X-axis. Motors 3 and 4 (M3 and M4) are mapped to Axis 2 (A2) on the Y-axis.

This allows one component to be associated with another by simply dragging one object to another on the computer screen with a mouse.

IMPORTANT! Object mappings, along with all other Motion Console settings, are NOT saved until the Save All to Flash Memory function is used on the Controller summary window. If you do not save your settings to flash memory, your settings will be lost when the system is powered down, or when the controller is reset.

Before using Motion Console to map objects, it will help to review how the user interface is designed.