Tomfoolery
Member
I have a unique material handling need that can be addressed by combining a conveyor's belt motion with a linear slide that moves the conveyor's frame position. This will give me a way to manipulate what is happening on top of the conveyor separately from what is happening on the underside of the conveyor (it would take a very long explanation to describe why this is a good thing and how it would be used, so you'll have to trust that this is a useful application of motion control).
To make this work, I need a PLC that:
1) has two virtual axes
2) has two real axes of motion control output
3) has the motion output in the form of step & direction
There will be a separate trigger input for each virtual axis. Each virtual axis might have a different triggered motion (example: a three" index for a trigger on VM1 or a 36" index for a trigger for VM2).
The conversion to the real axes would be a combined gearing of the activity of the VM's. For example: Motor 1 = 0.75*VM1+0.5VM2. This is the same kind of combined gearing that is required for H-bots.
I want the step & direction output so that I can easily mock this up with steppers and then advance to Clearpath Servos to commercialize it.
I looked at Delta, but the outputs appear to be analog 0-10VDC. I looked at Panasonic, but it is unclear whether they can handle two simultaneous VMs. Allen-Bradley doesn't have step & direction without paying a lot for AMCI cards.
Any suggestions as to what PLC's might have everything I am after?
To make this work, I need a PLC that:
1) has two virtual axes
2) has two real axes of motion control output
3) has the motion output in the form of step & direction
There will be a separate trigger input for each virtual axis. Each virtual axis might have a different triggered motion (example: a three" index for a trigger on VM1 or a 36" index for a trigger for VM2).
The conversion to the real axes would be a combined gearing of the activity of the VM's. For example: Motor 1 = 0.75*VM1+0.5VM2. This is the same kind of combined gearing that is required for H-bots.
I want the step & direction output so that I can easily mock this up with steppers and then advance to Clearpath Servos to commercialize it.
I looked at Delta, but the outputs appear to be analog 0-10VDC. I looked at Panasonic, but it is unclear whether they can handle two simultaneous VMs. Allen-Bradley doesn't have step & direction without paying a lot for AMCI cards.
Any suggestions as to what PLC's might have everything I am after?