Re: Stepper Motor Controllers

[Mark Rivers <rivers@cars.uchicago.edu>]

We have 11 Newport XPS controllers on our beam lines. In my experience they are much easier to configure than the Delta Tau units. They have a user-friendly Web interface, all parameters are in engineering units, etc. There is an EPICS interface to complex multi-axis coordinated motion with detector triggering, and lots of other auxiliary I/O.

Mark


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 10, 2015, at 9:52 AM, Mark Davis <davism50@msu.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I am currently in the process of reviewing the capabilities of DC Stepper Motor Controller/Drivers and was wondering what other labs are currently using and what they like/dislike about them.
> 
> I have read Matthew Pearson's summary from 8/2010 regarding the Delta Tau VME Turbo PMAC 2, Delta Tau Geobrick LVM, Newport XPS.
> 
> From his description, I assume the Delta Tau Geobrick LV is a significantly different device (at least physically) than the Geobrick LVM.  At the very least LV is MUCH smaller (15.4" x 4" x 7.2").  It is still a PMAC2 based controller, but they make a point of the elimination of analog signaling:
> 
>     "The absence of analog signals – required for typical motion controller/drive interfacing – enables higher gains, better overall performance and tighter integration, while significantly decreasing costs and setup time."
> 
> This may explain how they managed to make it so much smaller the the LVM model (which, as near as I can tell, they no longer make).  It might also help avoid the noise problem that Matthew mentioned regarding the LVM model.
> 
> From reading various other Tech-talk postings my impression is that the Delta Tau PMAC controllers are very capable, but complex and require a lot of effort to get set up correctly.  However, that may be mitigated to some extent by using the synApps tpmac module (and BNL's page regarding setup and configuration).
> 
> What other controllers are being used?  What are the advantages, disadvantages, and problems that have been encountered?
> 
> Mark Davis
> NSCL/FRIB
> davism50@msu.edu
> 
> 
> 
>