Compact Logix Stepper Motor Control

[wanher3]

Hello,

I’m looking to control a bipolar stepper motor using a stepper motor drive and a compact Logix PLC. Can anyone point me to how to program this ? Is there any instructions or AOI or sample logic I can refer to ?

I understand that most stepper motor drives take in as input a Pos+, Pos- for position ; a Dir+, Dir- for direction and an En+, En- for the power enable.

I see references drawings having both the pos+ and Dir+ inputs connected to 24V but how’s the handling of and what to do with and how to control the Pos- and Dir- from my ladder logic.

Any help or sample is appreciated. Also how can I get position feedback from a stepper motor?

 

[chavak]

There are many stepper motors/drivers in the market. Not all of them is controlled similarly.
You should give more details on your motor/controller and its connections

BTW steppers are open loop system, you may not get a physical feedback unless you had an encoder attached to it

 

[RClem]

I had an application using Oriental motor stepper drivers and motors (4 axes), I had to use 2 AMCI 3602 motion controller cards in a CompactLogix. The stepper drivers usually require a high speed pulse for control that your standard outputs can't supply. The AMCI site has sample programs and add on profiles.


https://www.amci.com/plc-automation-products/3601-compactlogix-motion-controller-plc-module/#!/1001

 

[Jmeadows7676]

I used the SMD17E2 from AMCI and found it really easy to setup. Its a all-in-one solution.
I used the Sample programs and AOI to control it.

https://www.amci.com/plc-automation-products/motion-control/integrated-solutions/motor-drive-controllers/

 

[swimmy67]

I am currently doing a project using the ClearLink Ethernet/IP Stepper Motor Controller from https://teknic.com/.

I am replacing the current Stepper setup with their ClearPath SDSK Servos.

 

[Snyd1]

A cheaper option https://www.applied-motion.com/products/stepper-drives/stf10?pn=STF10-IP

These have ethernet/IP and AOI's available for rockwell. For feedback you would still need an encoder.

 

[wanher3]

Does Stepper motor drive take a pulse (PWM) as an input ? Or is it a simple digital input and will generate a pulse (PWM) going to the motor ?

 

[wanher3]

I had an application using Oriental motor stepper drivers and motors (4 axes), I had to use 2 AMCI 3602 motion controller cards in a CompactLogix. The stepper drivers usually require a high speed pulse for control that your standard outputs can't supply. The AMCI site has sample programs and add on profiles.


https://www.amci.com/plc-automation-products/3601-compactlogix-motion-controller-plc-module/#!/1001

Can the 3602 module be used as an encoder as well without getting feedback position from the motor ? In order words, after sending a command to the module which in turns sends pulses to the motor driver, can the module Input status word be used to check the status of the commanded motor speed or position even if the motor doesn’t have an actual feedback?

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

Does Stepper motor drive take a pulse (PWM) as an input ? Or is it a simple digital input and will generate a pulse (PWM) going to the motor ?

No, it is usually to pulses like the output of a quadrature encoder. Sometimes it is step and direction.

 

[RClem]

Can the 3602 module be used as an encoder as well without getting feedback position from the motor ? In order words, after sending a command to the module which in turns sends pulses to the motor driver, can the module Input status word be used to check the status of the commanded motor speed or position even if the motor doesn’t have an actual feedback?

The module will keep track of where it thinks the motor is, without encoder feedback it won't confirm the position or speed. In my case I read the position via modbus from the stepper driver and compared to my home position. I did not need high precision so this check was good enough to determine if I had lost position (my resolution was 200 steps/mm). If my customer had purchased the Ethernet/IP version of the stepper driver it would have been much easier.