Stepper motor driver/controller with oscillator

[RyreInc]

Hi, I'm looking for an industrial stepper motor controller that will allow bi-directional jogging at a set speed via a toggle switch (or similar). This will drive a 6A stepper motor, which drives a ball screw to move a vertical load.

So far we've come across the Anaheim Automation DPD72PG1, which appears to meet all of the requirements. Omega's ST10-S may work as well.

Are there any other options we should be checking out?

Thanks!

 

[btrueblood]

I've had good success with Oriental Motors products. Anaheim Automation is cheaper, but they also don't rate their motors very well(*), IMO - we had some output torque problems in ramping up to speed. Eventually fixed it, but by moving to a higher rated output motor. Had similar struggles with other vendors, though, so it seems to be an industry-wide problem.

(*) The motor output torque can drop dramatically when the rotor reaches a harmonic frequency and begins to oscillate. If you want to operate at this speed, you won't get the torque shown by the typical smooth torque-vs-speed graph in the vendor literature. If you just need to accelerate past the harmonic, it can be done, depending on your load profile. Some drives handle this ok, others not so well. 5-pole motors have less problems with this, at least in our experience with the first brand.

 

[itsmoked]

Have you checked with Automation Direct? Very cost effective and free, capable, tech support.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[RyreInc]

Thanks for the replies!

Oriental Motors looks like they may have a solution, but they seam overly capable(!), and indeed pricey.

Automation Direct has a few nice solutions but all require a separate oscillator/pulse generator, which they do not offer and are hard to find in an industrial package.

Perhaps a different type motor would be more appropriate for this application? We want high holding torque and a fast deceleration. Again, this will be manually jogged by a toggle switch to move a vertical load to a desired height via ball screw.

 

[btrueblood]

Do you need speed/acceleration control of the motor, or just on/off? If the latter, a standard permanent-magnet dc motor or "universal motor" sounds right.

 

[RyreInc]

What we really want is for this moving load to cease movement as quickly as possible once the toggle switch is released. It would be nice to have a slow accel so that the operator can make small adjustments to the position with quick on-off toggles, but that is a secondary consideration.

We do plan on incorporating a parking brake so holding torque is not critical.

 

[MikeHalloran]

You seem to be homebrewing what is basically a hoist.
... for which load brakes are not optional.
... and for which specialized VSDs with load brake coordination already exist, so you could use a simple 3 phase motor.

You might search for packaged hoist controls rather than designing and certifying your own.







Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[RyreInc]

Mike,

I ran that idea past our mechanical guy, but he indicates that a hoist system will likely not have the positional accuracy and precision we require.

Thanks for the idea though!