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Trio adds interface to motion coordinator range

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 21, 2009

Trio Motion Technology has added a Sercos II digital drive interface to its MC464 Motion Coordinator range.

The MC464 Sercos interface enables 64-bit multi-axis motion and machine-control performance, including application-matched drive and motor technologies from Sercos-equipped products.

The Sercos interface is one of several digital drive interfaces available with the MC464 that may be mixed with a choice of fieldbus modules to realise complete Programmable Automation Control systems with up to 64 axes of motion, operator interfacing and I/O plus programming flexibility that includes Trio's TrioBasic, G-code or industry standard IEC 61131.

The Sercos communication protocol is specifically designed for high-speed digital motion control - exchanging closed-loop control and position feedback data with rapid speed through optical fibre wiring.

The standard also includes a service channel for progress, status and diagnostics data exchange.

Trio's MC464 Sercos digital drive module sends and receives 32-bit control and feedback values for up to 16 axes at selectable data rates of up to 16MHz with a servo-cycle period down to 250 microseconds.

As the bus master, the MC464 Motion Coordinator can accommodate four Sercos modules - providing precise synchronisation for up to 64 axes in position or speed mode with a jitter value or maximum fluctuation in accuracy of less than 1 microsecond.

It suits tightly coordinated positioning applications using linear and rotary servo-drive and motor technologies, and the availability of third-party Sercos equipped vector drives, stepper drives, I/O modules, sensors and PLC interfaces allows almost any kind of automation or machine control system to be realised.

As Sercos drives can be located up to 50m apart with plastic-fibre cabling or up to 250m for glass cables, large-scale automation control is possible with reduced wiring and fast installation times.

The Sercos protocol also decreases connectivity problems and helps to reduce development timescales and costs with simplified machine design and faster machine build.

The MC464 central controller is Din-rail or panel mounted and includes I/O, status display, SD card memory expansion, an axis synchronisation port and master encoder input.

Built-in programming and communications ports include Modbus, Hostlink, Ethernet IP, CANopen and RS232/485.

Expansion modules including the MC464 Sercos digital drive module clip mount to the MC464 central controller.

Scalability is ensured with system expansion available by installing additional modules to use only those features required for the application.

The MC464 includes the Trio Motion Perfect programming environment that provides users with a Windows-based interface and with time saving tools designed for setting up, commissioning and diagnostics across the Motion Coordinator range.

For the MC464 Sercos module, this includes automatic bus identification and a drive wizard that creates a TrioBasic configuration program to automatically run at startup - initialising and setting all individual drive and component parameters on the ring.

TrioBasic also includes several commands specifically for Sercos drives, exploiting the potential for diagnostics via the service channel and providing access to internal parameters of equipment on the ring for simplified control.

Digital 24V registration handling inputs are available on the Sercos interface and remote-position capture can also be implemented on some third-party Sercos drives.

Users may also choose the industry-standard IEC 61131-3 option for PLC programming, with PC-based tools for Ladder Diagram and Structured Text, along with Instruction List, Function Block Diagram and Sequential Function Chart programming.

Sercos applications can also benefit from the MC464 factory communications module, which is based on the Anybus CompactCom interface system.

Fieldbus and communications modules available include Profibus, DeviceNet, CANopen, Modbus-TCP and -RTU, CC-Link, USB and Bluetooth.