Steve Bailey
Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
Yesterday I was looking over a machine tool for a customer. It is an old tool that at some time was retrofitted with an Anilam "Wizard 900" position readout display. The position information comes from glass scales, model number RBS-5T, also from Anilam. There are DC drives on the axes.
Currently they Anilam gear is just providing position readout information but they have asked me to tell them what it would take to incorporate the position information into a motion controller that would allow the operator to key in a target position and move the axis to it.
What I've been able to locate so far about the Anilam gear doesn't provide much information about the nature of the signal from the sensing head of the glass scale. About all the manual says is to plug the cable from the sensing head into the port on the back of Wizard 900.
There is a picture of a square wave pulse and the text "5V" on the sensing head. From that I infer that it might be an incremental encoder pulse at 5 volts amplitude. Can anyone confirm that? If so, is it quadrature, single ended or differential? Is there an "end of travel" signal incorporated into it? If not, is it a resolver (SIN/COS) signal?
My thought is to feed the signal from the sensing head into a PLC high speed counter module and use it to calculate a speed reference to the DC drive so that it slows down as it approaches the target position and stops when it gets there. There is no chance they can justify retrofitting new servo motors and drives.
So, a rather long winded explanation of a request for a source of information in enough detail to design a system to test whether or not my approach will allow them to position the axis accurately enough to satisfy their request. I already have the Anilam manuals "Wiz900_manual" and "RBS-T_4". I'm looking for something with more detail about the electrical signals and voltage levels.
Currently they Anilam gear is just providing position readout information but they have asked me to tell them what it would take to incorporate the position information into a motion controller that would allow the operator to key in a target position and move the axis to it.
What I've been able to locate so far about the Anilam gear doesn't provide much information about the nature of the signal from the sensing head of the glass scale. About all the manual says is to plug the cable from the sensing head into the port on the back of Wizard 900.
There is a picture of a square wave pulse and the text "5V" on the sensing head. From that I infer that it might be an incremental encoder pulse at 5 volts amplitude. Can anyone confirm that? If so, is it quadrature, single ended or differential? Is there an "end of travel" signal incorporated into it? If not, is it a resolver (SIN/COS) signal?
My thought is to feed the signal from the sensing head into a PLC high speed counter module and use it to calculate a speed reference to the DC drive so that it slows down as it approaches the target position and stops when it gets there. There is no chance they can justify retrofitting new servo motors and drives.
So, a rather long winded explanation of a request for a source of information in enough detail to design a system to test whether or not my approach will allow them to position the axis accurately enough to satisfy their request. I already have the Anilam manuals "Wiz900_manual" and "RBS-T_4". I'm looking for something with more detail about the electrical signals and voltage levels.
