Motion Control Virtual Axis - Encoder

Hi All,

I am new to motion applications and am seeking some info on setting up an electronic gearing project.

I am using an allen bradley 1769-L27ERM-QBFC1B with three kinetix 350 drives. I have a main cam shaft driven by an AC drive. The cam shaft has an absolute encoder wired back to a fast input card on the PLC. I am hoping to use electronic gearing to synchronise one servo to the main cam shaft.

I was planning to use a virtual axis which is referenced off the main encoder. When I set up the axis I am not too sure how to link the encoder to it. Is this a practical approach? Are there other simpler ways to chieve the same result?

It may be more practical to just use standard motion commands but I am hoping to get familiar with the gearing / camming setup on a project that should be relatively straightforward to debug, so I can use it in future projects.

Any thoughts or feedback welcome...

I believe your only option for implementing this concept for the given/chosen CPU/Servodrive platform would require an encoder "fed" PF755 EtherNet/IP Motion drive which will drive the "Master" camshaft.
The encoder signal to be used as Kinetix axii "cam" reference will need to be "connected" to an Axis belonging to the Kinetix 350 Motion Group.
The chosen CompactLogix CPU allows only Kinetix 350 and PF755 Motion Modules addition; the Kinetix 350 drives are single axis devices (their Encoder/Feedback ports will be used for the connected servomotors), hence the only other available Motion Module choice (EtherNet/IP Motion PF755) will have to be implemented.
The existing encoder signal will have to be "split" and one "copy" of the signal provided as reference to the PF755 Drive Axis.
This is just a theoretical conclusion; I have not personally implemented such a setup nor ever encountered it.
Motion applications are generally "supported" by ControlLogix (or modular CompactLogix) platforms, platforms which provide a much larger list of compatible Motion Modules.