Controlling Maxon motor with LabVIEW over USB

[aeroAggie]

I'm creating and answering this for progeny. It looks like I had an issue that a lot of people have unsuccessfully shared.

problem

I have a Maxon 24/5 motor that I can control with EPOS Studio via USB, the control suite developed by Maxon. Now, I wish to control the motor via LabVIEW. How do I do this?

[aeroAggie · Accepted solution]

solution

Assuming you already have the motor drivers (for Windows):

1. Download the LabVIEW instrument driver EPOS 2 from NI

2. Extract the drivers to your LabVIEW installation's instr.lib folder. For me, that folder is here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2016\instr.lib

3. Open a new VI in LabVIEW, right click in the block diagram, and navigate to the EPOS sub-sub-pallette in the instruments sub-pallette. Make sure that you do not have the EPOS P drivers. Those are separate and apparently useless.

4. Load one of the examples, and set the "communication settings in" values as follows:

deviceName: EPOS2

protocolStackName: EPOS2_USB

interfaceName: USB

portName: USB0

baudrate: 1M

timeout: 500

5. Set your desired position/velocity, and press start!

I just figured this out myself, so I'm going to tackle how to actually program the controller next. I'm just glad I finally figured out how to connect to the darn thing.

Thanks to Prasanth_Thangavel for his initialization pic here, and JB for indirectly guiding me there.

[Jeff_UMD]

Is this library compatible with EPOS 4 systems?

[andmboa7]

You should compare the specs from the EPOS2 and EPOS4.

[aeroAggie]

Try it! The worst that will happen is it won't work.