Which (dc) motor controller has the best Labview support?

[LennartM]

I am looking for a good solution to control a two DC motors over a fieldbus (CAN or EtherCat) through a pc. NI Softmotion seems to be great for this. But it seems I need a realtime system for it, a PXI or Compact Rio? Regarding cost I would like just a PCIe or usb card on the pc and not a Compact Rio in between.

So I could take for instance a usb Can adapter:

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/nl/nid/203386

The CanOpen library is however not recommended for new designs?

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/nl/nid/202614

But then I would have to implement the whole control protocol, I don't know how easy this is.

I did found an example for CanOpen and Maxon drives:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/F2F553B7B2E3FC10862572AC0023FCA0

But it is from 2007, is it still usable?

Another solution I found was to use a Copley drive and use their Copley Motion Objects and make reference to this program through Labview.

TLDR:

-What are the best practices for controlling a DC motor controller over a fieldbus?

- Which manufacters / systems are recommend (Maxon, Copley, ....)

[a_clucker]

Hi LennartM,

I'm not as familiar with the SoftMotion side of things, so I'll let someone else address that. However, I can shed some light on the fieldbuses you've mentioned:

CANopen: We offer C-Series, PCI, and PXI hardware for CANopen. This hardware is supported by the NI-IndCom for CANopen driver.

EtherCAT: the EtherCAT driver requires a Real-Time master.

Kind Regards,

[LennartM]

Thanks for your response.

From what I understand it is also possible to use the USB 8473 (CAN) with CanOpen. But it has less features:

http://www.ni.com/example/30873/en/ But it is much cheaper than the PCI-8531 (1310 euros vs 430 ).

On the controller side: I contacted Copley drives but they don't have Labview support (although you can implement it yourself of course).

Maxon seems to have an instrument driver. But perhaps there are also other brands that offer some support?

[dboels]

Hi,

Following information can be useful:

What CANopen Software is Available and What Hardware is Compatible with National Instruments Products?
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/13C3CB1148A2AEA4862579DB0066E66B

As mentioned above, the PCI-8531 with the NI Industrial Communications for CANopen looks as the most suitable and futureproof option. The USB solution has limited functionality and uses libraries which are not developed and/or supported anymore.

SoftMotion is not directly suited for CANopen, next page gives an idea which hardware is suitable with SoftMotion:
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/5F019205291BF02686257A07007D1B06?OpenDocument

This tool might also be of help to get CANopen :
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/nl/nid/210877

Of course, when you look into other possibilities (EtherCAT + Realtime platform) you have much more possibilities.

Following links are useful:
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/52867/en/
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/12127/en/