Controlling a stepper motor with cRIO-9073

[TurboM]

Hi NI community.

I would like to control the flow of air through a turbocharger b.m.o a valve connected to a reduction gearbox and stepper motor (the motor and driver of which I have not yet purchased). I would like to keep the control as simple as possible by means of a feedback loop and limit switches to indicate the fully open/closed valve. The feedback signal will be measured from the turbocharger shaft. The rpm is converted to a linear 0 - 10V signal.  

Yours sincerely

TurboM 

[JtotheB]

Hey TurboM,

You should be able to do that with a NI-9512 cRIO module for stepper motors, and the NI Motion software that comes with the module. That module has the capability to implement feedback control. If you aren't terribly familiar with LabVIEW programming, you might also be interested in the Motion Assistant software, which would simplify programming for you. We also have stepper motors along with that driver module. If you have any more questions, please let me know. If you are interested in those products, send me a private message with your contact information and I can have one of our account representatives get in touch with you and help you pick appropriate hardware for your application. Have a great day!

[TurboM]

Thank you for your advice John B. I looked into the module and decided that it seemed a bit overkill for my application. I then looked at the NI-9501 stepper control/drive module. This module looks to suite my application at a far better price. Just one question. Can I control the stepper motor without the use of the NI Soft Motion Module as the license fee far exceeds my project budget. I do have anacademic license of LabVIEW 2009. Will that suffice?

The other option / last resort is to build my own stepper controller and driver from L297 and L298N IC's

Regards

TurboM

[JtotheB]

Hey TurboM,

You will be able to control your motor without the software module. All of the necessary drivers are included with the purchase of the cRIO module, and the software I mentioned are just extras that might make your application easier to implement. You will have to do a little bit more coding without the Soft Motion module, but you should still be able to do whatever it is that you have in mind. Have a great day!

[TurboM]

Hi John B.

You have been a great in helping me decide in what direction to go. Next question. So I have decided to choose the NI-9501 module, and so have subsequently realized that I will have to do some FPGA programming, since I will not be using SoftMotion. There will be a training on Real-Time and FPGA implementation in one of our cities in South Africa, which is where I'm from, but I will be unable to attend it. Thus I was wondering if there are any usefull self-study / tutorials regarding the use of FPGA and cRIO. The tutorials I have found so far on NI's website are very vague and do not really go into that much depth. Can you supply me or advise me where to search for such tutorials?

Regards

Turbo M

[JtotheB]

Hey TurboM,

Here is some material to get you started. Then another general tutorial about FPGAs.

Hope that helps!

[TurboM]

Again, many thanks to you John.

This material will keep me busy for quite some time. O and by the way, I discovered that our university might have an academic site license for SoftMotion. While busy installing the FPGA and real-time modules from the Control, Simulation and Mechatronics Software DVD I noticed that there was a an option to install SoftMotion aswell, so things might not get too difficult after all. But thank you none the less and I will keep you posted on my progress if you care to be interested.

TurboM

[JtotheB]

Happy to help, and good luck with your project!