ServoWire Axis Module
The ServoWire Axis Module provides high performance motion control using up to eight axes of servo motors and/or remote encoders.
ServoWire Axis Modules are metal-edged printed circuit boards which plug into the 16-bit ISA backplane of the ORION motion controller and use a 80 MHz Texas Instruments digital signal processor (DSP) to provide axis control algorithms. The Axis Module also includes diagnostic LEDs, MotionDATA electronic gearing, ServoWire network interfaces and optional analog inputs.
Depending on application requirements, the servo loop update on the Axis Module can be configured up to 2kHz (eight servos) or 4kHz (four servos).
Strengths of the Axis Module
Multi-Processor Architecture: The DSP on the Axis Module is interfaced to the main Intel architecture processor through a 16K byte shared memory for maximum speed and flexibility. The resulting multiprocessor architecture, combined with the overall power of the DSP, enables ORION to operate effectively at high sampling rates to provide accurate positioning via robust motion control algorithms. It also eliminates analog components including tachometers.
ServoWire Network Interface: Reliable, simple-to-configure, scalable, all digital control interface to the ServoWire motor/drive axes.
MotionDATA: For tightly synchronized multi-axis motion control applications, MotionDATA provides a direct axis module to axis module communications link to share motion reference information at loop update rates. This synchronous data communications channel operates at 625 Kbits per second and uses user-transparent error correction techniques. MotionDATA speed and flexibility allow large systems to be precisely electronically geared to a single electronic lineshaft or multiple sub-lineshafts in a cascaded control configuration.
ServoWire Axis Module Options
Analog Inputs: This option provides four or eight 12-bit analog inputs that allow external devices to interface to the servo control loop. Software configured digital filtering eliminates the need to install external filtering components on the analog input.