Copley Xenus Drive with PXI-8461

[RMaso]

Hello,

I am trying to learn how to use the Copley Xenus drive with Copley's CMO library in LabVIEW. I'm struggling with finding a starting point. I'm new to using .NET framework and it seems like there should be an easier way to talk to the drive with LabVIEW. We're currently using a Moog drive with CANopen and the PXI-8461 CAN card. The VI's I'm trying to replace have API's to write over CAN. Do these NI-CAN API's work with any drive, or am I limited to using Copley's CMO (.NET Framework)?

Any tips would be great.

Thanks!

[Jacobson-ni]

RMaso,

If you want to use the NI-CAN API to communicate using CANopen with the card you have you will run into a few issues.  CANopen is built on CAN so you should technically be able to do that communication but the NI-CAN API does not have that functionality built in, meaning you will have to build up your own API with the given functions.  

We have a supported CANopen API but it will only integrate with our CANopen hardware.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/13C3CB1148A2AEA4862579DB0066E66B

[RMaso]

Matt,

Thanks for your reply. So it seems like you're suggesting that we upgrade the PXI-8461 to the PXI-8531 to work with CANopen? Is the NI-Industrial Communications For CANopen the API to download to use? 

http://www.ni.com/download/ni-industrial-communications-for-canopen-1.0.3/4100/en/

Sorry for all the ignorant questions, this is new territory for me in LV! My assumption is that if I'm using the PXI-8531 and the software above, it will allow communication to the Copley Xenus drive? Or are there only specific drives that work with the NI software?

Thanks again for your help!

[Jacobson-ni]

 Can you link the Copley CMO library for LabVIEW?  

Ideally that library will perfectly integrate with their products but I was not able ot find that so I am not sure how they are expecting you to actually use the library.  Is the library a bunch of dlls or is it a library of LabVIEW functions?  If it is a library of LabVIEW functions we should hopefully be able to tell what kind of driver they used.  It will be a bit harder to figure out what to do in LabVIEW if they just provided dlls.

[RMaso]

Matt,

http://www.copleycontrols.com/motion/Products/Software/netSoft.html

That is the link to download the CMO library. It appears that it is actually a .NET Framework DLL and not an API set. It would be better (obviously) to have an API that we can use, rather than the .NET Framework. In the CMO Programmer's Guide (link below), it shows on page 20 how to add the .NET reference to LabVIEW, but gives no real information on what to do past that, unfortunately.

http://www.copleycontrols.com/motion/pdf/CMO_programmersGuide.pdf

I did download the NI Industrial Communications for CANopen from the link in my previous post. I also read that the Industrial Communications for CANopen supports EDS files; I was able to find a Copley EDS for the drive, but I'm not sure how to implement it. 

Thanks!

[Jacobson-ni]

RMaso,

Have you read into the CMO Programmer's Guide?

http://www.copleycontrols.com/motion/pdf/CMO_programmersGuide.pdf

It looks like the CMO only supports the following CAN Interface cards; Copley, Kvaser, IXXAT.  It does look like you can use a dedicated ethernet adapter to do CoE.

Page 20 of this manual goes over how to add the .NET object in LabVIEW.  From what I am seeing you will not be able to use the CAN card you have but will be able to do CoE.