Posted to News on 21st Apr 2011, 12:46
Nanotec SMCI36 motor controller for distributed control
Delta Line Europe is introducing the Nanotec SMCI36 motor controller that features dspDrive and ClosedLoop technologies to meet the needs of engineers looking for quick, small and energy-efficient motor controls for distributed applications.
ClosedLoop provides energy-efficient motor controlling and, with the field-oriented control, geared servomotor systems can be replaced with more cost-effective stepper motors. This is said to be particularly true for rotational speeds of up to 1500rpm or torques of up to 10Nm. The CANopen bus standard provides for rapid communication between the individual components of motion control systems.
The new SMCI36 controller is distinguished by its compact construction and comes with a ClosedLoop-capable encoder input. Delta Line Europe says that Nanotec only utilises 'real' ClosedLoop, meaning that the stator magnetic field is controlled via the rotary encoder, as with a servomotor. The stepper motor can no longer lose any more steps, even at maximum torque. The current magnitude is continually adjusted to the required torque, which substantially decreases current consumption and heat development in comparison with conventional stepper motor controllers; this leads not only to reduced electrical power requirements but also to a longer service life for components.
The combination of dspDrive technology and the SMCI 36 model provides for especially quiet-running, low-vibration stepper motors, as required for medical technology, laboratory automation, optical devices and similar applications. In the normal clock direction mode, stepper motors operated with this software-based current controller (dspDrive) are essentially quieter compared to alternatives using off-the-shelf ICs, as the entire control circuit is handled with 12-bit resolution. Thanks to the software-based control circuit, both stepper and brushless DC (BLDC) motors can be controlled with the same hardware.
Users can set the bus interface (type RS485 or CANopen) by means of jumpers. For programming the drive, Nanotec's user-friendy Windows GUI NanoPro is available.
The CANopen version of the SMCI36 is said to make the most of its advantages in distributed automation systems. Motors controlled by the compact SMCI36 can be easily integrated in CANopen bus systems and configured via the CAN bus. For example, there is already a complete driver for the the SoftSPS program CoDeSys V3 SoftMotion available from 3S Smart Software Solutions GmbH for integrating the controllers in multi-axis applications by means of the CANopen Interpolated mode.
Follow the link for more information about the Nanotec SMCI36 motor controller from Delta Line Europe.
