Hi I’m new here and a beginner with SmartMotors,
I have an SM34205D and need to synchronize it whit an stepper; the stepper have an encoder with 10 Counts/Rev, what the smartmotor must do is to rotate at 10 times the speed of the stepper but with the condition that the smartmotor home position have to pass at the exact time of each of the stepper counts.
Because of my lack of experience I’m controlling the smartmotor form a PLC via RS-232 and the PLC detects signals from both motors (encoder pulses) I’m already implement a couple of algorithms to synchronize the system with no luck... so any suggestion is welcome.
Thanks’ in advance,
Armando
That motor has 8000 counts/rev. Are you sure the stepper only has 10 counts/rev? That would be very hard to synchronize... as the SmartMotor would jump 800 counts for each pulse from the stepper if you use electronic gearing. Does the PLC have another Step and Direction output?
Hi csearcy, thank you for your reply,
First the stepper has a constant speed and is not controlled by the PLC. I´m using external encoders with optic sensors. The stepper´s encoder is attached at the shaft and readed by the PLC, there are 10 pulses per stepper revolution, for each pulse the smartmotor have to do one revolution (actually the number is 49 because of a gearhead ratio, 49:1), every revolution of the gearhead is detected by an optic sensor always at the same position, what I have to do is synchronize the stepper´s encoder reading and the smartmotor optic sensor reading, they have to be at the same time.
Thanks
Hi csearcy, thank you for your reply,
First the stepper has a constant speed and is not controlled by the PLC. I´m using external encoders with optic sensors. The stepper´s encoder is attached at the shaft and readed by the PLC, there are 10 pulses per stepper revolution, for each pulse the smartmotor have to do one revolution (actually the number is 49 because of a gearhead ratio, 49:1), every revolution of the gearhead is detected by an optic sensor always at the same position, what I have to do is synchronize the stepper´s encoder reading and the smartmotor optic sensor reading, they have to be at the same time.
Thanks
I think you are going to need a higher resolution encoder for the stepper if you want to synchronize the two motors with electronic gearing. With the 10 count/rev encoder, the motor would be "hyper-gearing"... meaning it would be jumping 800x49(39200) counts for every count of the steppers encoder. You may be able to get them close by running open loop... but that may not work for your application. You may want to contact our tech support team to discuss your application and options.