[RP Designs]

So forgive my ignorance on things electronic, I am much better at the mechanical things than the electronic things.

I want to control a single axis of motion. I want to be able to jog, and control direction and speed. The movement doesn't need to be precise, but speed should be pretty repeatable. I would also want to be able to do cyclic motion as well. What would I need to have or do to build and control something like this?

[Al_The_Man]

Many ways of doing it, from PicMicro, designed from the ground up, PLC, or single axis motion card, either stand alone or PC based.
You could do it with Mach and a PC but its a bit of overkill.
Al.

[RP Designs]

I'm looking for simple and inexpensive. Obviously this isn't a CNC application, so I simply need to be able to set the parameters quickly to get repeatable results. I don't really have any programming skills, so I am looking for something plug and play, more or less.

[Al_The_Man]

I don't know whether you will find anything of the shelf that is designed to cover all bases.
There is usually some customization in every project.
Probably the quickest is PLC with a two line display and keypad such a s Maple Systems etc.
Automation Direct have cost effect solutions, usually.
Al.

[mike_Kilroy]

From your description I believe a simple servo drive will do the job. It can control speed, jog, & direction. I doubt from your description you need anything more.

Email us at [email protected] and we would be happy to quote you a drive to do this. A motor too if needed. Include your phone no if you want an app engineer to call you and discuss your app in detail.

[RP Designs]

So would a PLC control the motor directly, or would it control the motor through a secondary motor control?

[underthetire]

All really depends on how accurate your stop positions need to be. I did one that was simply a bodine brushless motor, with built in drive, a siemens logo smart relay and a couple switches. Total cost not including the slide was less than 500 bucks.

[mjrandle]

If this is an industrial application, then have a look at Automation Direct's Sure Servo range. You won't need a PLC unless you need more advanced operator interaction, e.g. changing speeds via touchscreen. Just look for a servo drive that can handle a few speed presets (for jogging) and a potentiometer input to adjust speed. The internal indexer should be able to manage simple cycles, anything more complicated and you might need a PLC.

Cheers,

Mike

[Al_The_Man]

So would a PLC control the motor directly, or would it control the motor through a secondary motor control?

With a PLC you still need a motor drive or controller/amplifier, the small operator interface is required if you need to enter position data etc.
Al.

[canwong]

I used to use single axis controller to control my bar feeder for CNC lathe.

[RP Designs]

Hmmmm, maybe I am thinking about this wrong. I will be needing to input data into a PC from a load cell as well as a position sensor. I am building a tensile tester if that helps. I want to be able to do tensile and compressive testing and also want to be able to do cyclic testing as well if that helps. I will need an I/O card for the load cell and displacement sensor anyway, so it may be better to think along those lines for motor control. what I want to avoid is writing code, because frankly I hate it and i pretty much suck at it and don't want to spend time debugging it.

So given that, If I am interfacing with a PC using some sort of I/O card and am able to send a signal to a motor controller, what type of signal would a stepper/servo controller need. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced software package that will get me there. obliviously NI's labview will get me there, but that is no in the price range I want to spend.

[sptry]

ok!

[Al_The_Man]

I will be needing to input data into a PC from a load cell as well as a position sensor. I am building a tensile tester if that helps. I want to be able to do tensile and compressive testing and also want to be able to do cyclic testing as well if that helps. I will need an I/O card for the load cell and displacement sensor anyway,....what I want to avoid is writing code, because frankly I hate it and i pretty much suck at it and don't want to spend time debugging it.

.

Thats too bad as this would be one of the projects the PLC would excel at and should be able to do all you need.
Al.

[RP Designs]

Thats too bad as this would be one of the projects the PLC would excel at and should be able to do all you need.
Al.

Actually the PLC is still not out of the question and may still be the best solution. From the data acquisition side I need the I/O interface and some ancillary hardware for signal conditioning/ and amplification, but the included software will do most of what I need without much programing. The software is really the biggest sticking point for me since I really don't know a language and I don't have the time to spend to learn and get proficient with one.

The majority of the time I will basically send the motor in one direction at a fixed speed. It would be nice to have a feedback loop to stop the motor, but I certainly could either do that manually or let the limit switch handle that. I could almost get away with a cheap VFD and an AC motor if I didn't want to also do cyclic motion. I thought about using mach, but the thought of doing a lot of linear moves to produce high frequency motion didn't really appeal to me.

[underthetire]

Right up my ally. Just put load cells in a machine spindle to detect small loads. (safety interlock to machine let's just say super dangerous material) I used an omega panel meter with digital io. The digital io goes to....you guessed it a siemens logo smart relay. Those are 150 with software and very easy to program. The logo on this controls alarm circuits, but can be used for step or direction. The omega crap is expensive in comparison to everything else, but load cells output are only in the mv/v range, so tough to get plc to read them direct.

[RomanLini]

Hmmmm, maybe I am thinking about this wrong. I will be needing to input data into a PC from a load cell as well as a position sensor. I am building a tensile tester if that helps. I want to be able to do tensile and compressive testing and also want to be able to do cyclic testing as well if that helps. I will need an I/O card for the load cell and displacement sensor anyway, so it may be better to think along those lines for motor control. what I want to avoid is writing code, because frankly I hate it and i pretty much suck at it and don't want to spend time debugging it.

So given that, If I am interfacing with a PC using some sort of I/O card and am able to send a signal to a motor controller, what type of signal would a stepper/servo controller need. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced software package that will get me there. obliviously NI's labview will get me there, but that is no in the price range I want to spend.

Try around the software forums, you can probably throw a couple hundred dollars at it and get a VB app custom written for you, and source code if you ever need it modified or features added.

Or try an embedded forum, someone can probably do it with a microcontroller and give you a dedicated machine controller so you don't need a big unreliable PC going just to operate the machine. An embedded solution with hardware will cost a bit more than a simple VB app, but will save you the cost of the data acquisition cards. If I wasn't so busy I could throw something together in a weekend, by my plate is pretty full for the next couple of months.