P7000 Tools Can't Run Profile

[hyspec]

Hi,

We have a P70530 stepper drive driving a EzM-86M-A motor. The P70530 is connected to a PC via com port, and we're running P7000 Tools.  In the Motion page of the P7000 Tools I defined a profile and downloaded it to the P70530.

Problem:

When I click Run Profile #1 (or any other number) in P7000 Tools Motion page the motor does not move. In the same page clicking the Jog+ and Jog- buttons works OK and jogs the motor forward and back using either Jog High or Jog Low profile.

I tried setting the profile to exactly the same values used by the jog function. I tried playing with the I/O settings in P7000 tools, and changed Input #6 from "Jog-" to "Start Move" or "Start/Stop Move" and the system behaves the same. I downloaded the settings to the device after every change. I looked into help file for P7000 Tools for any settings that enable/disable the run profile function but could not find any. The NI phone support could not help me with this problem.

We also have a 7340 card and UMI-7774 connected to P70530 Command I/O port. With this configuration I can execute NI-motion functions and run the motor.

[Vivek_N]

Hi,

As you are able to move the motor successfully with the NI-Motion functions, it looks like your hardware setup is correct As long as you have configured the settings in the P7000 Tools Software as indicated in the manual (http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/P70530manual.pdf), it should work. If you have already checked these settings with the manual, I would recommend contacting Danaher for further assistance. 

[hyspec]

Hi Vivek,

We bought P70530 from NI, following the NI recommendation after a consultation with NI sales, we don't have any contacts at Danaher. It's a brand new equipment, supplied and supported in Australia by NI. 

This feels like talking to a Holden dealer about a vehicle problem and being referred to the Holden factory.

[The_Chancenator]

Hi,

First, the reason Vivek asked you to contact Danaher is because the drive is actually made by Danaher, as is the software that you are trying to use (the P7000 tools). NI's expertise is in our own software.  Am I correct in assuming that this works in Measurement & Automation Explorer?  What are you trying to do overall--do you need to communicate via a COM port if you can get this the motor to function with the NI Motion software?

Second--is your motor a stepper motor or a servo motor?  Any reference that I found to the motor seemed to indicate that it was a servo motor: 

http://www.a-drive.de/download/adrive_schrittmotoren_ezi_servo_closed_loop.pdf

(page 10, near the bottom).  However, I don't know German and could be missing something here.  The drive number that you have given is specifically for stepper motors, while the P70360 is for servo motors. 

I didn't see your specific motor in the pull down list of motors to use--I'd double check the settings that you are using since there doesn't seem to be a motor file for your model. 

Finally, if you have a DMM at your expense, you can check the signals yourself that are being sent to the motor.  When you have it set up with the COM port and command a jog, what does the drive output to the motor?  When you have commanded an actual move, what do the signals look like?  Most likely, the problem lies in software, but these tests should give some more insight as to what is actually going on. 

I hope that you find this information helpful.

Cheers, 

[hyspec]

Hi Marti,

First, our company supplies a number of third party components in our products. We never refer our customers to the OEM for any issues with these products. If OEM needs to be contacted, we contact them. That way our customers have a single point of contact for the systems that we supply.

Second, what I am trying to do is to define a profile, load it into P70530 and run it. To do this I am using P7000 Tools connected via COM port. This is quite clearly stated in the initial post.

We are using a stepper motor, as you may see from EzM-86M-A spec. It is supplied by the company called Ezi-Servo, but the motor is not a servo motor, it is a bi-polar two phase stepper motor.

This motor does not exist in the default P7000 Tools list, I defined it using the motor specs, and checked it several times. In any case, the Jog function executes a single predefined profile step, so if the motor definition is good for Jog, I would expect other profiles to work too. This is particularly true when other profile is exactly the same as the Jog profile, as mentioned in the original post.

Following your recommendation I connected a DSO to the P70530 output. When executing Jog function the unit produces voltage pulses on the output. When I click Run Profile there are no voltage pulses on the output pins. This measurement does not give me any additional clues, it's exacly what I expected to see. Just like you, I also suspect that the problem lies in the P7000 Tools software, which is mentioned in the subject line of this post.

Finally, I have contacted Danaher, haven't received a reply yet.

[SMeserve]

Hi hyspec,

I apologize for the issues that you've had getting support with this issue.  I have taken the time to reproduce the issue you were seeing and have been able to see the exact same behavior.  At this point, we are taking this issue through R&D and are talking to Danaher about this issue with their hardware/software.  Please be patient as we do this.  You appear to be the first customer to encounter this issue.  Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention.