How to Communicate with Lenze Servo Position Conroller via CAN or Profibus and Labview

[GA1]

Hello,

         I am currently heading a project were I have to revamp an old PLC controller that controls a stage and replace it with a labview controlled setup(with vision). I am trying to find the best way to go about communicating with the Lenze Controller(9321) via labview. The communication interface was profibus dp, but I notice that the only profibus modules available are in Europe, so we think we might go with CANopen. I am wondering if anyone knows the best way to go about communicating with such a device with Labview and if there are any specific command sets to communicate with the servo controller.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

[Andy L]

Hi GA1,

I am not vary familiar with the Lenze Controller 9321 and could not find much information on the controller.  Could you give more specific information about it?

What type of communication does it use (USB, Serial, GPIB)?
How is it being used, what is it controlling in your system?

Specific commands for the servo controller will depend on the controller type and should be in the documentation.  Reference attached link if you would like to know more about the CANopen library for LabVIEW. 

Regards,

[Andy L]

Message Edited by Andy L on 09-24-2007 06:07 PM

[GA1]

Thanks for the reply Andy. The Lenze controller is a servo position controller made in Germany that uses their profibus protocol that is similiar to CAN and it's highly used in Europe. It is meant to take signals from a PLC or PC via db9 and then communicate with the servo motor. You can look up the Lenze controller on the Lenze website and it's properties will be listed in a pdf entitled 93XX. I'm really just interested in making sure that the NI CAN module will be able to communicate with the CANopen module for the Lenze controller, and interested to know if there is a certain command set or library I need to know about.

Thanks,

Brian

[DirkW]

Hi

The CANopen Library for LabVIEW, together with the NI PCI/PXI CAN board, can work with any CANopen device on the market. But the communication speed is limited to 200 Hz, as the highest periodicaly communication rate.

If you need higher rates in ms resolution, as it sometimes happens with drives and motors, i would suggest to use a profibus board. We are working very closely with an alliance partner in Germany. He offers Profibus interfaces together with LabVIEW drivers.

See the Link below for more information.

Profibus Link

DirkW

[GA1]

Thanks Dirk,

   Well the controller originally came with the Lenze Profibus DP module, but we were unable to find a device for the CRIO that would work with it. The controller itself is a slave, and we are replacing the PLC with the CRIO, so we would need a Profibus master, and the CRIO modules on the European market seem to be slaves.

Is there any particular reason the speed of the CAN modules is limited to 200 Hz? NI offers two CAN modules, one low speed and one high speed...is there any way that you tested the low speed module?

Thanks,

Brian

[Brian_Beal]

You probably don't need high speed CAN.  It depends on what the master is doing.  If it is in more of a supervisory role, then slow CAN should be OK.  If you are sending real-time position commands, then you will need higher speed.

[GA1]

It will be sending real-time positions to the servo motor. Basically, it will get a position from a vision system, do a few calculations, then send the XY data to the servo position controller via CAN, and move accordingly.

[Brian_Beal]

How fast can your vision system process a new position update?

[GA1]

Not exactly sure exactly how fast it can process the data. We are using a compact vision system and vision builder to calculate the coordinates and then relaying that info to the CRIO. As long as the vision builder can find a location and relay it to the CRIO in < 3 seconds, we are good, since our other opertions will at least require 5 seconds.

Brian