Hi,
Long story for a few small questions about CANopen:
For a number of precision translation and rotation stages, we use Faulhaber brushless-DC motors with Hall sensors as feedback (no encoder) and small Faulhaber motion controllers with an RS-232 port. So we use the Faulhaber software to parametrize the controllers and save the configuration to their EEPROM, and after that we install the motion controllers in the field and connect them to an industrial PC, which runs our own custom software (under Linux). This software basically sends some simple ASCII commands to the controllers.
However we would like to replace the industrial PC with custom software by a Beckhoff TwinCAT PLC/EtherCAT system. For future motion stages we'd like to use the same Faulhaber BLDC motors, but not necessarily the same motion controllers. As Beckhoff doesn't sell small I/O terminals which can control these BLDC motors, I think we're stuck with the Faulhaber motion controllers. Apart from the RS-232 communication port, Faulhaber also sells the same controllers with a CANopen port (which could be connected to the Beckhoff system by a CANopen master terminal (EL6751)).
So I was wondering if there are clear advantages of CANopen vs. Faulhabers proprietary RS-232 protocol, in case of PLC control. I don't have any experience with CANopen so I have a few short questions:
- is it correct that CANopen motion controllers would allow us to store all configuration data (like motor specs, max speed, ...) in the PLC, so as to keep the motion controller itself "dumb" at power-on? So if a motion controller fails, we can simply replace it without having to configure it manually first with the Faulhaber software? If so, is a restart of the PLC needed when the motion controller is power cycled for some reason, or can I expect that PLCs can be programmed so that they can reconfigure the motion controller automatically?
- does CANopen have a sort of mechanism to "download" a full list of parameters ("PDO's" I guess) from a device? Is it reasonable to expect that I can commission the motion controllers without using the accompanying Faulhaber software?
- are there other advantages or disadvantages I need to be aware of (before getting a CANopen device and starting to experiment with it and learn from it)?
Many thanks!
Long story for a few small questions about CANopen:
For a number of precision translation and rotation stages, we use Faulhaber brushless-DC motors with Hall sensors as feedback (no encoder) and small Faulhaber motion controllers with an RS-232 port. So we use the Faulhaber software to parametrize the controllers and save the configuration to their EEPROM, and after that we install the motion controllers in the field and connect them to an industrial PC, which runs our own custom software (under Linux). This software basically sends some simple ASCII commands to the controllers.
However we would like to replace the industrial PC with custom software by a Beckhoff TwinCAT PLC/EtherCAT system. For future motion stages we'd like to use the same Faulhaber BLDC motors, but not necessarily the same motion controllers. As Beckhoff doesn't sell small I/O terminals which can control these BLDC motors, I think we're stuck with the Faulhaber motion controllers. Apart from the RS-232 communication port, Faulhaber also sells the same controllers with a CANopen port (which could be connected to the Beckhoff system by a CANopen master terminal (EL6751)).
So I was wondering if there are clear advantages of CANopen vs. Faulhabers proprietary RS-232 protocol, in case of PLC control. I don't have any experience with CANopen so I have a few short questions:
- is it correct that CANopen motion controllers would allow us to store all configuration data (like motor specs, max speed, ...) in the PLC, so as to keep the motion controller itself "dumb" at power-on? So if a motion controller fails, we can simply replace it without having to configure it manually first with the Faulhaber software? If so, is a restart of the PLC needed when the motion controller is power cycled for some reason, or can I expect that PLCs can be programmed so that they can reconfigure the motion controller automatically?
- does CANopen have a sort of mechanism to "download" a full list of parameters ("PDO's" I guess) from a device? Is it reasonable to expect that I can commission the motion controllers without using the accompanying Faulhaber software?
- are there other advantages or disadvantages I need to be aware of (before getting a CANopen device and starting to experiment with it and learn from it)?
Many thanks!