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PCI card features eight-axis control

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 1, 2003

Trio Motion Technology's stand at the Drives and Controls Exhibition in June will feature the full range of motion co-ordinators offering up to 24 axes of control, I/O for up to 256 channels, together

Trio Motion Technology's stand at the Drives and Controls Exhibition in June will feature the full range of motion co-ordinators offering up to 24 axes of control, I/O for up to 256 channels, together with operator interfaces and communications systems.

Two new products will be shown for the first time.

The PCI 208 motion co-ordinator brings the latest technology to the PCIbus, providing unprecedented computational speed, flexibility and connectivity to users requiring a PC-based motion control solution.

Also on display will be a new Sigma II Sercos interface for Yaskawa drives.

In addition, a new development allowing Modbus TCP/IP communications to be implemented on motion co-ordinators will be demonstrated.

The PCI 208 motion co-ordinator incorporates a 120MHz DSP processor, PCI 32bit 33MHz bus, 8Mbyte SRAM, 128Kbyte dual-port RAM, 256Kbyte application memory and 32Mbyte Flash memory.

Equipped as standard with 20 optoisolated inputs and 10 optoisolated outputs, the PCI 208 will provide any mixture of stepper axes or stepper axes with encoder feedback or encoder verification up to a total of eight axes.

An optional board provides 16bit resolution voltage outputs for servo drives.

Two built-in CAN channels are supplied, with the option to expand using Trio's CANbus digital and analogue modules.

The PCI 208 is specially designed for motion control applications centred around a PC.

The motion co-ordinator is programmed via a supplied OCX component using PC development languages such as C, Delphi or Visual BASIC.

Further, Trio's free MotionPerfect development software (available to download from the company's website at) may be used to monitor complex motion such as cams, gears, linked axes and interpolation.

Demonstrating Trio's highly flexible development capabilities, the new Sigma II Sercos interface brings the benefits of this universal digital communications protocol to users of the popular Yaskawa range of drives.

A custom-designed module simply clips into place on the side of any suitable Sigma II drive.

No modifications are required to the drive, and the interface module will operate with any Sercos Class B compliant motion control system.

Employing a noise-free fibre optic ring to connect all drives and the controller, the Sercos system can significantly reduce wiring connections while ensuring precise control and system synchronisation at up to 16MHz datarate.

Although designed for operation with any suitable drive and control system, the Sigma II Interface is also an ideal partner for Trio's Sercos daughterboard.

This optional interface card may be fitted to the company's MC 206 and MC 224 motion co-ordinators to provide eight or 24 axes.

Trio's Motion Coordinators are programmed in BASIC, using MotionPerfect software which allows users to install and set up control networks quickly without the need for an in-depth knowledge of the Sercos standard.

New drives can be configured rapidly by simply connecting into the fibre optic ring and following MotionPerfect's on-screen prompts.

Sercos communications, together with Trio's advanced motion co-ordinators and class-leading software, permits users to develop high-precision machines with reduced product development times and potentially lower manufacturing costs.

In response to customer demands, Trio has added the Modbus/TCP protocol to the suite of fieldbus communication protocols which it supports.

Applying the company's extensive experience in Modbus serial line and TCP/IP Ethernet systems, Trio has quickly added Modbus TCP support to the Ethernet daughterboard.

It is now possible to run the Modbus protocol via a local Ethernet network - and even across the Internet - providing remote access to the Trio motion co-ordinator's global registers and I/O.

The motion co-ordinator acts as a Modbus slave and responds to commands and data requests made by the Modbus master.

Both integer and floating point data formats are supported.

Modbus has become a de facto industry standard for factory networking, due to its open specification, ease of use and low cost.

It simplifies network construction, with intelligent master and slave devices from many different vendors able to exchange control and data information using the same protocol.