kolyur
Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
Hi folks,
I have a project coming up which is going to require about 10 servo axes. I have worked with servos on many occasions but only 1- or 2-axis systems with fixed motion profiles. I don't need any coordinated motion between the axes but I do need the ability for the operator to input custom position values for each axis.
I have used the Allen-Bradley Ultra3000 drives before with very good success and would like to stick with them if at all possible. I know that a ControlLogix system would be beneficial for this but I'm planning to stick with an SLC for various reasons that I don't want to describe here.
Given those parameters, my tentative plan is to get an Ultra3000 indexing drive for each axis and do one of the following to handle the changing position values:
1. Get the DeviceNet version of the drives and all the necessary support (RSNetworx, 1770-KFD, etc.).
2. Communicate to the drives over a serial connection using the documented host commands. Supposedly these drives can be put on a RS485 network with each unit having a unique address.
We don't have any DeviceNet in our facility as of yet, so I'm hesitant to go that route and buy all the supporting hardware/software unless it's necessary. But I've also heard that trying to handle all the Ultra3000 serial commands in the ladder logic can be very complicated.
I discovered that Red Lion recently added a Ultra3000 driver to their Data Station and G3 operator interface panels (http://www.redlion.net/Products/HumanMachineInterface/DataStationPlus/DataStationPlus.html). We are already using some Red Lion panels and have their programming software, so if the driver works as advertised then it's exactly what I'm looking for.
Does anyone have any experience with this combination? Or any other suggestions on how to handle communications between 10 axes? Thanks for your help!
-John
I have a project coming up which is going to require about 10 servo axes. I have worked with servos on many occasions but only 1- or 2-axis systems with fixed motion profiles. I don't need any coordinated motion between the axes but I do need the ability for the operator to input custom position values for each axis.
I have used the Allen-Bradley Ultra3000 drives before with very good success and would like to stick with them if at all possible. I know that a ControlLogix system would be beneficial for this but I'm planning to stick with an SLC for various reasons that I don't want to describe here.
Given those parameters, my tentative plan is to get an Ultra3000 indexing drive for each axis and do one of the following to handle the changing position values:
1. Get the DeviceNet version of the drives and all the necessary support (RSNetworx, 1770-KFD, etc.).
2. Communicate to the drives over a serial connection using the documented host commands. Supposedly these drives can be put on a RS485 network with each unit having a unique address.
We don't have any DeviceNet in our facility as of yet, so I'm hesitant to go that route and buy all the supporting hardware/software unless it's necessary. But I've also heard that trying to handle all the Ultra3000 serial commands in the ladder logic can be very complicated.
I discovered that Red Lion recently added a Ultra3000 driver to their Data Station and G3 operator interface panels (http://www.redlion.net/Products/HumanMachineInterface/DataStationPlus/DataStationPlus.html). We are already using some Red Lion panels and have their programming software, so if the driver works as advertised then it's exactly what I'm looking for.
Does anyone have any experience with this combination? Or any other suggestions on how to handle communications between 10 axes? Thanks for your help!
-John