Compumotor 6k

[dingin]

I am upgrading a 3 axis stepper system from parkers 6000 (ISA bus) to their 6k (RS232/Ethernet) indexer.

I was wondering if anyone has suggestion or opinion about whether to write the communications vis from scratch

or to buy the Viewpoint Motion Library.

The application involves single PC to 6K connection

uses scaling, limits, home, motion and status commands only, no I/O

Much thanks

[george seifert]

QUOTE(dingin @ May 24 2007, 09:08 AM)

I am upgrading a 3 axis stepper system from parkers 6000 (ISA bus) to their 6k (RS232/Ethernet) indexer.

I was wondering if anyone has suggestion or opinion about whether to write the communications vis from scratch

or to buy the Viewpoint Motion Library.

The application involves single PC to 6K connection

uses scaling, limits, home, motion and status commands only, no I/O

Much thanks

You might want to check with your Parker rep and see if they can help. Our rep ended up writing the controller code for me and told me how to talk to the controller from LV. Granted it was a fairly easy application, but they might be able to help out.

George

[PaulG.]

QUOTE(dingin @ May 24 2007, 10:08 AM)

I am upgrading a 3 axis stepper system from parkers 6000 (ISA bus) to their 6k (RS232/Ethernet) indexer.

I was wondering if anyone has suggestion or opinion about whether to write the communications vis from scratch

or to buy the Viewpoint Motion Library.

The application involves single PC to 6K connection

uses scaling, limits, home, motion and status commands only, no I/O

Much thanks

I would think on upgrading from the 6K controller, also. Last I heard they were phasing that out in a few years. The new replacement is supposedly 100% compatible+. If you are going through all the effort you might as well upgrade the hardware as well.

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Viewpoint was written in LV6.1 nearly 4 years ago, costs $1000. Looks like they are an NI Alliance Partner.

Here's a link to the manual:

http://www.viewpointusa.com/6K%20VI%20Moti...er%20Manual.pdf

Their vi's appear to be fairly well written on the surface, at least they use error clusters and have a concept of data flow, unlike N*wport!

Personally, I would start on my own, if I made little headway then $1000 is worth it.

I use the 6K in a couple systems here, but all under native Compumotor language (no LV (yet))

[dingin]

George,

I am in Shanghai and the reps here are little more than sales clerks

Could you share a little more about what your rep told you?

Did the VIs use TCP, VISA or some other primitive VI?

Thanks!

[Kevin P]

I skimmed the manual a bit. An awful lot of low-level communication code has been implemented in the 6k driver, but I didn't happen to spot much higher-level code. You know, the kind that could be especially helpful for implementing a motion control app. So you may still need some learning curve for the 6k controller itself, learning how to use the 6k driver to implement a particular motion sequence. But again, I only skimmed.

Since Viewpoint happens to be local to my area, I *can* say that they're definitely a quality outfit. I haven't used the 6k library myself, but I've seen some of their custom one-of-a-kind work and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Writing good, robust drivers can be a real black hole during app development. If your app needs even a moderate amount of real-time-like interaction with the 6k controller, I'd recommend buying the driver package. If you basically store a bunch of possible profiles on the 6k controller and only rarely interact to select one, you may be ok coding it up yourself.

-Kevin P.

[george seifert]

QUOTE(dingin @ May 24 2007, 07:24 PM)

George,

I am in Shanghai and the reps here are little more than sales clerks

Could you share a little more about what your rep told you?

Did the VIs use TCP, VISA or some other primitive VI?

Thanks!

I'm using VISA to write to the serial port. I'm just using a few simple write and reads to a couple of registers. We are also using the ACR9000 instead of the 6K because they said that support of the 6K was being phased out and the ACR was cheaper.

George

[crelf]

QUOTE(george seifert @ May 26 2007, 12:38 AM)

We are also using the ACR9000 instead of the 6K because they said that support of the 6K was being phased out and the ACR was cheaper.

We use the ACR9000 on a number of projects (TCP/IP) and it's a very capable unit. There were some drivers that came with it (from memory) but they weren't much more than lower-level command wrappers, so we had to write a toolkit around them.

[Jeff Plotzke]

QUOTE(crelf @ May 25 2007, 11:26 AM)

We use the ACR9000 on a number of projects (TCP/IP) and it's a very capable unit. There were some drivers that came with it (from memory) but they weren't much more than lower-level command wrappers, so we had to write a toolkit around them.

Here's a huge warning about the ACR9000 -- If you use a servo drive that's not made by Parker, you'll have nightmares trying to get them to play well together... Apparently there's special handshaking lines between the ACR9000 and Parker drives that aren't used in other manufacturer's drives -- I've used the ACR9000 along with a Kollmorgen drive and the integration of the two isn't something I'd want to do again...

[Mike Ashe]

I used the Viewpoint 6K VIs on the controls for the mirror coating chamber at the Gemini telescope in Chile. They worked fine. For that app, the control was serial. Never really had any problems to speak of. I would second the opinion of Viewpoint. They are a good group, write good code.

If you are going to use the 6k hardware, stop wasting time on this decision and just buy the toolkit from Viewpoint. You'll spend more time and your company's budget on the "make or bake" than the toolkit costs. I mean really, an engineer's time doing LabVIEW development bills at $100.00+ (and thats low at many companies). You can't possibly write in 10 hours anywhere near what you'll get in the kit. And Viewpoint had decent docs.

Of course, that's all a moot point if you go with a different controller. The concern is valid. If the project has to be supported for many years out, you'd be wise to look at a newer option. Personally I've started to become a fan of the various brands of "smartmotors" like you can get from http://animatics.com/